DA:Inquisition - Patch 5 Notes Posted

The upcoming Patch 5 for Dragon Age: Inquisition contains a number of improvements to gameplay and stability, as well as some new features. We’ve added party storage to the Undercroft at Skyhold and the ability to adjust the size of subtitles.

Below you will find a full list of changes and additions for all systems.

PC Specific: While we’ve added the ability to toggle mouse look, this feature is still under development and does not act optimally under all conditions. We are continuing to work on this feature to improve it for future releases.

Friday - February 27, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Creating the Visual FX Video

Whether you’re closing a Fade rift or raining down meteors on your enemies, you’re seeing Dragon Age: Inquisition’s visual FX at work. We’ll take you behind-the-scenes and show you how the game’s special effects enhance the player experience.

Monday - February 23, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Tactical View Tips Video

Don’t get overwhelmed by demons and Venatori. Learn more about how tactical camera can help you pause the action and uncover enemy weaknesses. We’ll show you tips for controlling the battlefield and give you the advantage over even the toughest of adversaries.

Thursday - February 19, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Beta Patch 5 released

Sign ups for the PC Patch 5 Beta program are now closed. If you have successfully entered the program, please go here. Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for your entitlement to take effect. If you're having trouble accessing the private beta forum, try logging out and logging in again, clearing your cache, and restarting your web browser.

DA:Inquisition - 8 Things It Could Do Better

Ah, Dragon Age. You came and conquered, with your dragon slaying, templar defiling, open-world, giant nug-riding immensity. So why, after 100 hours of my lazing-on-the-sofa-doing-nothing devotion, ending my journey in the deadly peaks of Emprise du Lion with ruins to spare, do I feel a little less than loved? Don’t panic, I still worship you, but that’s not going to stop me from dissecting you. Sorry!

Because, in spite of our admiration for Varric’s chest hair and Iron Bull’s mighty breasts, in the end, BioWare could still do something to improve you. Or eight somethings, actually. So here are the improvements I dare to suggest, nestled within the heart of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s crucial RPG components. Beware, mild spoilers ahead!

Saturday - February 14, 2015

DA:Inquisition - New Patch & Video

At BioWare, we’re always looking for new ways to empower our players. Whether in person or online, we firmly believe in collecting feedback and working with our community to ensure we’re addressing issues important to both new and experienced players.

For Dragon Age: Inquisition, we’ve developed a faster and more compressed patch schedule than any prior BioWare game. However, due to the nature of the certification process, it can often still take weeks after developing a fix to release it on different platforms. Because of this, we continue to explore new ways to foster better communication between our players and developers.

Enter the Patch 5 beta program.

We want to open up our upcoming Patch 5 to a select group of PC players via signup in a closed, developer-like environment. This not only allows us to more quickly identify and respond to future issues, but gives our developers a great, new way to work directly with our players.

Patch 5 will be the biggest patch we’ve released to date, and it addresses a number of key concerns for our community.

Using the Frostbite 3 engine to build Dragon Age: Inquisition opened up new possibilities for the team to explore. In this installment of our Behind the Scenes series, Lucy James sits down with Lead Environment Artist Ben McGrath to learn how the team at BioWare Edmonton brought the world of Thedas to life.

Wednesday - February 11, 2015

DA:Inquisition - EA “Very Excited” for Long Term

Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition has been a strong success for the company, mopping up most Game of the Year awards (including our own) for 2014. It also recently won Game of the Year at the DICE Awards and EA CFO Blake Jorgenson says the company is excited for the future.

“Longer-term, we’re very excited. BioWare, they just won Game of the Year at the DICE Awards. We’re very excited about the success of that team and what we can do with that team. I think there’s a huge opportunity for [Dragon Age].”

There won’t be any Dragon Age in 2015 so don’t worry about the publisher fast-tracking a sequel like Dragon Age 2 again. The key was in retaining what made Bioware’s games a success while still breaking new ground as producer Mike Darrah told GameSpot.

“I think really it’s both a return to form, a return to what BioWare did in its roots: exploration, story-telling, character development. Us starting to explore new areas [being] deeper, open-world gameplay. I think just that combination is what really resonated with people.”

Sunday - February 08, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Wins Game of the Year Award

While Shadow of Mordor scored 8 of the 9 awards it was up for, it was Dragon Age: Inquisition that shocked the crowd and took home "Game of the Year," beating the likes of Far Cry 4, Shadow of Mordor, Destiny, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Bioware also took home the "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year" honor as well.

Tuesday - February 03, 2015

Dragon Age: Inquisition - RPG Codex Review

Much like Dragon Age: Origins, Inquisition has various plotlines that culminate in a far-reaching "global" decision. To favor one faction out of two, to pick the ruler of a kingdom, and so on. However, what the game lacks is a climax which redeems all of these choices in a satisfying manner...........Inquisition has something of an equivalent to the Battle of Denerim, but it does not feel as satisfying. The problem sometimes boils down to the choices themselves, where every nuanced option you are given has consequences which can be and are portrayed in the same manner. Choosing one sovereign or faction out of many hardly feels significant when the actual impact on the game, or on the realm, is made up of the same actors wearing the same clothes no matter what you choose.

I think you all know the combat in DA: Inquisition. Here's RPG Codex's take on it:

For example, Baldur's Gate 2 had those elaborate magical battles everyone talks about. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the best thing I can come up with is that one time when I had to manage three cool downs simultaneously.How does one explain all of this? Well, Inquisition's combat is the result of something BioWare has been trying to do for years: to offer a compromise between two imagined audiences. The "hardcore" lover of party-based RPGs, and a casual buyer who's supposedly only interested in action games. It does so by delivering both experiences in one, which is why each camera mode has a different set of controls. And the result is exactly like flicking Arcanum's turn-based and real-time combat switch: terrible.

A quote from the Delterius's conclusion:

Delterius: What more can be said? Combat is mindless, exploration is tedious and what could otherwise be an enjoyable story is gated behind them...... But the truth is that Inquisition is nothing more than an exercise in treating players with a great deal of condescension. I can sympathize with the notion of simplifying a series in order to attract a wider audience but by God, I can't in good faith recommend Dragon Age: Inquisition even as a casual experience. It just isn't fun.

DA:Inquisition - The Best 5 DLC Ideas

We’re big fans of Dragon Age: Inquisition here at GameCrate. It was our Game of the Year and we’ve written about it extensively, covering topics from ways the game’s multiplayer can be improved to reasons Sera is the best character in the game.

Bioware has said Inquisition won’t have any DLC party members, so back in December we offered our suggestions for what we do want to see from the game’s inevitable DLC, including more companion-focused content and, most importantly of all, more dwarf stuff.

The GameCrate audience responded eagerly to the topic, offering plenty of suggestions of their own in the comments. Some of the suggestions were so good we felt they deserved to be featured in an article of their own, so let’s take a look at the best Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC ideas, as suggested by GameCrate readers.

DA:Inquisition - In Praise Of Long Games

The game has been criticized for being too long, but I think that the length is exactly what makes this game so successful. Dragon Age is a silly game in a lot of ways. The villain is basically a stick figure with an angry face painted on it. Neither the world nor the characters are as engaging as other recent fantasy epics like Skyrim or Divinity: Original Sin, or Bioware’s other major franchise, Mass Effect. The combat is fine, mostly, but far from exceptional. It does what it needs to do in a workmanlike and competent fashion. But it’s this sprawling, unmanageable structure that gives it the feeling of completeness, lulling you into that rare spot where you actually feel like you can live in a different world. You come to know the characters not like you would your closest friends, but like you would your co-workers: the intimacy that comes with just sort of being there, all the time.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Wins Award for Portrayal of LGBT characters

GLAAD cites Dragon Age: Inquisition's "many complex and unique LGBT characters prominently integrated throughout the game" as the reason for its inclusion in the 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, according to a statement released yesterday.The Special Recognition Award is reserved for "outstanding media projects for which there is not a competitive category." Video games do not have their own category in GLAAD's annual awards.

DA:Inquisition - Tavern Songs Giveaway

Even an Inquisitor needs some downtime for relaxing once in a while. If you've indulged in the opportunity at Skyhold's tavern to enjoy a break from the demons and Venatori, chances are you've heard some of the bard's lovely songs. Although bards do perform to entertain travelers, they also serve a greater purpose: to carry the tales of triumph and tragedy across the land.

We've received many inquiries from our fans asking where they can get these songs, and we're thrilled that you're enjoying them as much as we do. As our way of saying thank you for being the awesome community that you are, we're excited to announce that for the next two weeks, you can download these songs from a desktop computer free of charge!

DA:Inquisition - The Menus @ Gamasutra

I'm currently about 75 hours into DA:I. It's a great game, the characters, the interaction with them and interesting, non-obvious choices being my favourite parts. However, I've found myself wondering about some User Interface aspects and how they might be improved. Obviously, a lot of work has gone into the UI and it's always easier to critique the work of others than to build a coherent system for such a complex game from the ground up. Keeping this humbly in mind, let's have a look at some of the game's menus, how they're accessed and alternative ways of how they could be structured.

Tuesday - January 20, 2015

Dragon Age: Inquisition - PC Patch 3 Notes

In the upcoming Patch 3 for Dragon Age: Inquisition, our primary focus was on fixing bugs, particularly ones that blocked progression or hampered the player experience.

Based on feedback from our players, we tweaked the banter system to be less random in order to prevent extra-long periods of silence. We fixed quest blockers in the personal quests of Dorian and Sera as well as a spawning issue in Solas’s personal quest (I won’t elaborate to avoid light spoilers).

We targeted several issues in multiplayer, fixing the case that caused keys to not drop, as well as fixing issues with the Reaver’s rampage ability. There were also some balance changes, including tweaks to the Demon Commander and the Strength of Spirits ability to make it more useful.

We added some much-requested features, including key binding that allows walking for PC and push-to-talk functionality in the multiplayer end of match summary and armor upgrade menus. We also added a new multiplayer Destruction route, and players can now challenge themselves in the fiery Elven Ruins.

You can find a comprehensive list of the upcoming fixes in Patch 3 for PC below. We’ll release more information on patches for consoles in the future, so stay tuned for more updates.

We continue to listen to feedback from our players, and we thank everyone for working with us to create an even better Dragon Age experience.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

Following yesterday’s information about dragon murder, BioWare has shared new details about player choices in the game. This time out, we find out how many of you chose male inquisitors versus female heroes.

68 percent of Inquisitors were created as males. Every platform on which the game appears (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC) tend toward male characters. However, the largest percentage of female Inquisitors is on PC, with about 40 percent.

Every major gaming outlet recently wrapped up the year with a top ten or so list of best games, ultimately culminating in a coveted Game of the Year award. The game running away with the most high honors? That would be Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, the high fantasy epic which aimed to reverse ill-feelings fans had toward the series after the lackluster Dragon Age II.

Its plan worked, it seems, judging by the accolades. Dragon Age was GOTY for practically every major gaming outlet: IGN, Game Informer, Polygon, EGM, The Escapist, and the newly christened video game awards show, The Game Awards. I just don’t see it.

DA:Inquisition - Jeff Vogel Reviews the Game

I have long been vocal about my love for the Dragon Age series, so, of course, I can't let Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I) pass without going on about it a lot. I've only played through the main storyline once, but, since that's like 800 hours of play, I've been at it long enough to have some opinions.

I'm also writing this to try to draw eyeballs towards my new RPG, Avernum 2: Crystal Souls. Pushing my own game by saying nice things about someone else's is probably a bad idea, but I've always been terrible at marketing.

I really do love the game. (Some people have accused me of trying to get a job at Bioware for saying things like that, which is not true and kind of weird. But whatever.) It does well all the things Dragon Age should do well. It does a lot better at things it's done poorly in the past. It's huge and a hoot.

I estimate that you, the reader, have a 50% chance of being angry at me now.

Tuesday - January 13, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Tips for Better Crafting

by Couchpotato, 04:56

The Dragon Age: Inquisition website has posted 11 Tips for Better Crafting, I found it very informative especially for gamers that have no clue how to craft items.

After several hours of playing, you've likely collected nugskin, royal elfroot, and maybe even some Fade-touched obsidian. So, what do you do with it all? Congratulations, you're ready to begin crafting!

With so many different recipes, schematics, and materials available to you in Dragon Age: Inquisition, there's no shortage of helpful items to be had. With just a basic understanding of how Inquisition's crafting system works, you'll be creating spectacular gear in no time.

So many different possibilities to invest your resources in! Will you create a new weapon? Maybe some upgrades to your armor? How about improving one of your potions? To help get you started crafting your next masterpiece, we've asked lead gameplay designer Yaron Jakobs for some tips to success.

Saturday - January 10, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Fan Reverses Audio & Finds Secret

According to IGN a fan of Dragon Age: Inquisition has found a secret in the audio files of the game. The story mostly deals with what is said a the Temple of Mythal.

Now time for a short warning as the article will contain spoilers.

A Dragon Age: Inquisition fan has reversed the audio from a certain scene, and in doing so, changed what fans think they know about Dragon Age lore.

Before we go any further, this article contains massive end-game spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Reddit user sashimi_taco, who goes by the name Geek Remix on her YouTube channel, has created a video of the Inquisitor at the Temple of Mythal. During the scene where players are offered a choice, incoherent whispers can be heard echoing around the player. As it turns out, these incoherent whispers aren’t incoherent; they’re actually reversed to sound incoherent.

DA:Inquisition - Lore & Gameplay @ Gamemoir

Dragon Age: Inquisition isn’t a bad game. Actually, it’s my favourite in the series. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t problems. Runaway lore was one such problem. I understand that, especially as a fantasy game, you need to establish the world and make it seem real. However, Inquisition went about this in the worst possible way. Think of lore like any bit of written communication. A short, concise statement that leaves the reader satisfied is going to gather a lot more invested readers than over-the-top verbosity with very little to say. Inquisition clearly favoured the latter approach.

DA:Inquisition - Audio Interview @ Joystick

Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) chats with BioWare Creative Director Mike Laidlaw about Dragon Age: Inquisition. They discuss the influence that From Software's Dark Souls series had on Laidlaw when crafting the developer's latest RPG.

Tuesday - January 06, 2015

DA:Inquisition - Game of the Year @ Polygon

A good video game accompanies you, even when you are far away from whatever device you're using to play it. It creates a fictional ambience, a perfume that floats around you for weeks on end. Dragon Age: Inquisition is one such game. It is an alternative dreamscape of power, treachery, combat, exploration, magic and love. It is a sufficiently convincing universe of otherness that consumed my time when I was playing, and my attention when I was not.

Monday - January 05, 2015

DA:Inquisition - 15 Things To Like About the Game

by Couchpotato, 04:24

A small gaming website by the name of implayin posted fifteen things they like about playing Dragon Age: Inquisition. Some of them are spoilers so beware.

I’ve racked up over 25 hours of game play so far in Dragon Age Inquisition, and yet, I feel as if I haven’t accomplished much at all in regards to the story. Although I have saved a buffalo and found a lost ram, which I guess is nice. And that isn’t exactly a bad thing either (the amount of quests, not acting on behalf of Thedas RSPCA), otherwise I would of put the controller down at hour 5, not 20 hours later and still going strong.

That’s the beauty of Inquisition for me. It’s that I can mess about exploring the world, finding new rifts to close, not to mention the vast amount of side quests available, with every new area throwing more into your ‘to do’ adventure satchel.

So even though I haven’t completed the game, or in fact be past half way, I wanted to share the top 15 things I’ve enjoyed, that either you yourself may have loved (or hated for that matter) or for those who have not had the chance to play it, share in the experience.

and Leliana is there asking odd questions and testing the player's responses.One of these things had Envy-Leliana attempting to seduce you. It was creepy and weird, and one of the places where the player was allowed to go, "Woah! This definitely isn't right!" But the player also had the opportunity to accept. There were going to be severe consequences for accepting, but regardless of that the thing that was pointed out was how the creepiness of the situation went beyond the demon-seduction itself and more how it seemed to be a sexual violation of Leliana by-proxy.

I do not normal make comments on news bit, but I can't see how this can bee seen as a"sexual violation of Leliana by proxy". Do you?

Friday - January 02, 2015

Dragon Age: Inquisition - David Gaider Q&A

Lead Writer of BioWare David Gaider answered a few questions for Dragon Age: Inquisition on his webpage. They mostly deal with the games writing.

Here is a short sample of the various questions asked.

Just curious, of all the fan theories that you've seen, have any (at least partially) correctly guessed the direction of any future stories/plots/etc.? If you can't talk about it, I understand.

There’s so many of them that, like a shotgun, at least some of them have to hit the mark (to a point). I’m not going to say which, of course, but there’s a couple I’ve read where I was like “oh, that’s pretty close…not too bad…aww, and here you go right off the rails. Tsk.” Fan speculation is fun.

Thank you for making such a fun game! I was wondering - did you guys make DA:I with DLC ideas already in mind? Or does work on that kind of thing only start now?

We have plans for what comes next — we always have plans — though usually, once we reach that point, things have changed sufficiently that we need to adjust course. The Big Picture generally stays the same, but the details change a lot…the overall story of Inquisition doesn’t much resemble how it first started out, for instance, even though the major beats of it (and how they lead into the future) stayed consistent.

For its many compelling moments, its depth of choice and consequence, its welcome and colorful personalities, and its willingness to let you experience a fantastical world on the brink of calamity on your own terms, Dragon Age: Inquisition is the GamesBeat 2014 Game of the Year.

Sunday - December 28, 2014

DA:Inquisition - 6 Places To Revisit

You may have noticed that the open world of Thedas is pretty large. In fact, there’s even a chance that some of you reading this have yet to leave the Hinterlands. Although the Hinterlands is indeed a massive area with lots to do, you might be surprised to discover that it’s not even the largest location in the game!

Perhaps you’ve completed Dragon Age: Inquisition and think you’ve explored all these areas from top to bottom… but have you? We sat down with the level design teams and asked them to share stories behind their creation. Do you know why they call it the Hissing Wastes? Do you know which level was inspired by the Canyonlands of southern Utah? Did you find the hermit’s hut? We’ve got the answers to these questions and more!

Wednesday - December 24, 2014

DA:Inquisition - Removal of Heal @ GamaSutra

You aren't just traveling though areas leaving nothing but dead bodies in your wake, you are setting up camps and areas of protection for the locals. Personally I like how this changes the game, but I get how others might not like it. It is more punishing of mistakes (that doesn't necessarily mean harder) as you no longer have a sustainable way to erase those mistakes, and beyond the fact that this makes the game feel differently there are is also valid concerns about if this system is balanced correctly/fairly, I mean just because a system COULD be good/better doesn't mean it IS good/better. I quite like it though. I feel like it creates a more interesting battles and makes exploration a bit more exciting. I like how it feels like your mistakes matter now and can't be undone.

DA:Inquisition - RPG Game of the Year @ RPS

The characters, quests and combat aren't the heart of the game - the world is.There's so much to do that some of the quests, dialogue sequences and locations aren't as solid as others. With this much to see and do, I'm not bothered by the occasionally uneven terrain. There are sequences that I thought were highlights that other people rolled their eyes at, and parts that I greeted with a shrug that other people found touching, amusing or exciting.

Alec has this to say:

And, of course, no-one does RPG characters like BioWare does RPG characters. There are more bores on the team than I'd like, but The Iron Bull's a star, Sera brings both pomposity-pricking and increasing humanity, Dorian is a fine Errol Flynn and Solas is so fascinatingly odd. And refreshingly, reassuringly Welsh. Just don't make me look at his face.Something has been lost as the scope and scale expanded, yes - but what scope and scale.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New MP DLC & Upgrade

Dragon Age™: Inquisition - Destruction adds new paths to existing destinations. The conflicts raging throughout the world have upset the balance of nature. Wild creatures now roam the battlefield, introducing chaos as they attack both friend and foe. Best of all, you can download this pack right now, totally free!

Also they are now offering the Deluxe Version pre-order DLC as a paid upgrade.

Whether you’re on your second playthrough or experiencing the world of Thedas for the first time, the Deluxe Upgrade will grant you cool bonuses to empower your Inquisition! This upgrade is ideal for players who purchased the Standard Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Here’s what you’ll get for the low price of $9.99

Skyhold Throne – Every ruler should sit in a place of high honor, but as the Inquisitor you will have the greatest throne of all, fashioned from an ancient dragon skull.

Red Hart Halla – Navigate the perilous, living world atop this great-horned beast.

Bog Unicorn – Once belonging to an evil marauder, this unique mount has returned to inspire fear into those who would oppose you.

Bring the world of Thedas wherever you go with the digital soundtrack. Click here for instructions on how to download yours.

Tuesday - December 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Second Major Patch

by Aubrielle, 10:15

DA:I will get its second major patch today, improving some of the most notorious bugs, and will include a fix for PC controls. Those that like good things will like it.

BioWare will release the second major patch for Dragon Age: Inquisition on December 9, but it won't be the last. According to a post on the BioWare website, the second patch will address stability, gameplay and multiplayer issues ranging random crashes, an eerie lack of party banter, AI glitches and improved Mantle performance, among other things.

The patch has a series of PC specific fixes including unspecified PC control tweaks, but these areas will be further addressed in a planned third patch. "After Patch 2 goes out, our next priority is to improve the PC mouse/keyboard controls further. We’re investigating how to expand on PC usability and functionality to address specific requests from the community," the post reads.

Sunday - December 07, 2014

On December 4, David Gaider, Mike Laidlaw and Freddie Prinze Jr. gave a talk at the NYU Game Center about the development of DA:I. The entire talk is temporarily hosted online here. It's two hours long, but if you want to plunge into it, know that the host runs his mouth for ten minutes before letting the guest speakers talk at all. You may want to jump to 12:30 or so, when Laidlaw begins:

Nothing is certain--that's a big part of the DA world. A lot of things are tied to faith and [the idea] that history is mutable. These are things that Dave [Gaider] set up really early. In the first DA game, the very first line ever spoken is "The Chantry teaches us that..." and it goes from there. That's one of the key watchwords: history is not necessarily true. We don't have a source telling us it how it all went down--you always have the idea of perspective [...]

And Laidlaw says that what some have called an MMO-style grind is inspired not by online games but by a very old-school favorite.

Laidlaw highlighted the team’s goal of allowing “activity-based gameplay” [hideous suit-ish phrase] in which players can progress towards large goals through a variety of different means. Whether a player wants to fight a dragon or improve their home base, they will be rewarded with things like Power and Influence...

As a model, Laidlaw pointed to Sid Meier’s Pirates! [in which anything] from sailing to sword-fighting to dancing with a governor’s daughter all help to further your overall goals as a pirate.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Cracked By Modders

by Aubrielle, 10:38

Will we get DA:I mods after all? It's looking more likely, since the game has recently been cracked by modders. Bring on the Sims hairstyles; I'm done with helmet head.

If you're a fan of game modifications, then you should be excited to hear that Dragon Age: Inquisition was recently cracked by a group of modders. While this is generally seen as the natural evolution of RPGs on PC, it's always good to have that segment of time after a game's launch where everyone focuses on the actual game, rather than modifications.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Review Roundup # 5

Dragon Age: Inquisition is strangely addicting. Yep it’s a little surprising to be saying after the miserable failure that was Dragon Age 2. It was widely anticipated that Dragon Age: Inquisition was a bit of a tossup when it came to the expected quality. I went into the game with an open mind and I am grateful that I did. Without worrying about the creators and publishers of Dragon Age: Inquisition I was able to actually enjoy the game as it was intended.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a frustrating game. I often found myself scratching and clawing through boring, MMO-like content for enough power points to progress to the next major plot event. However, the fact that I was willing to slog through it at all shows just how good this game can be when it hits its stride. The dichotomy between the narrative parts and all that shoddy fetchquesting is a shame because when it hits those high notes, Inquisition is an absolutely beautiful experience.

The Koalition however calls it "Savior of the Industry" and finds only tacked-on multiplayer and a bug, which locks up the game during conversations, to be critique-worthy. The final score is 95/100.

There is more that can be said about this game but it really is one of those titles that has to be experienced to be appreciated. Granted that RPGs aren’t for everyone but fans of the genre will find little to complain about here. Bioware have truly gone out of their way to deliver one of the most deeply satisfying titles out there. A game of this scope is rare and having it released in a year where nearly every major title disappointed makes it stand out even more. Dragon Age: Inquisition is the title that the game industry needed.

Unfortunately, the size of these areas is also Inquisition's greatest problem. The majority of the quests in these areas are of the "go here and get this" variety, which offer little in the way of interesting story or character bits. In fact, the overall structure of these areas feels very much like an MMORPG, and not in a good way. Inquisition seems big for the sake of being big, stuffed with fetchquest after fetchquest solely for the purpose of increasing gameplay length. - See more at: http://www.gamecritics.com/richard-naik/dragon-age-inquisition-review#sthash.NZBJV0ur.dpuf

Saturday - November 29, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Angry Joe Review

by Aries100, 19:24

Angry Joe has made a video review of this game. His final verdict is 9/10 with a Must Own comment beneath. However, he gives the pc version 8/10 and says that Bioware and EA needs to fix the pc version with a patch. He played for 60 hours and could easily have played for 60 hours more. He is also thinking of playing again just to explore the alternate paths in the game. You can watch the video review here.

Thursday - November 27, 2014

I knew something was wrong! Multiple outlets are reporting that, if Inquisition seemed to have a lot less banter and charm than past Bioware games, that's a bug, not a change in tone.

That bit where Solas winds Sera up about her unexplored innate magical ability because she messed with his things? Mad bants - the kind some people are missing out on in Dragon Age: Inquisition because of a bug.

Some people have ploughed hours upon hours into the fantasy adventure only to be frustrated at the lack of chat between party members as they explore. There are pages of reports - on the EA Answers HQ support forum - of people only encountering a handful of occasions of banter in upwards of 10, 15, 20 hours of play, and longer.

Here's the partial workaround, courtesy of helpful user Maljester on the EA forums. Basically you mess with the audio settings until something resets. But it doesn't help in all areas -- Maljester reports that for him, Val Royeaux remains as bare of music and talk as ever.

Enchant_m3nt on the BSN Feedback thread had success with cycling/changing the audio settings to trigger banter and fix music/combat dialogue. I'd sadly had no luck with the mount/camp rest/teleport combo, and to my absolute astonishment - Houston, we have music and banter! (For those having trouble with the glitch, try the mount/dismount-rest, or trying the audio settings cycle to trigger banter/music.)

At first I ran around in the Hinterlands for awhile, trying out mount/rest. Dorian/Sera/Bull wouldn't talk, so I change from (Home Theatre - TV), get into combat, get combat noise, and 1min later, Dorian/Sera have a banter. Stumble into more combat with correct combat noise, 1 min later, get another banter between them. Run all the way to Redcliffe Village, Dorian makes an ambient comment (I have gotten ambient comments before, though), but then everyone stopped talking.

For those with the glitch, keep an ear out as you're playing for music and combat dialogue - if they're both working, there should be a higher probability you'll get banter to trigger, too.

Originally, Inquisition’s online multiplayer started out as its own standalone game. During the development of Dragon Age II, BioWare used the Frostbite 3 engine to create codename “Blackfoot”. Although never released, the co-op dungeon-crawling experiment lives on through the series’ latest instalment.

Someone at Gamefront has already finished the game (beating all our Watchers? Dart?) and didn't love the ending.

Inquisition has a few parts that give off that “ran out of money” vibe, the most egregious of which is the final battle with [...]

And that's where I stopped reading, fearful of spoilers. Lastly, Erik Kain at Forbes fuels all our worst fears by declaring that Inquisition is a great game ... for an MMO.

For that matter, Inquisition actually feels like a very good MMO, with much better quests and stories than your average title, built around a wonderful, richly detailed world. [...]

Now, all of this has me wondering if BioWare isn’t just warming up, if Dragon Age: Inquisition isn’t just a test-bed for a Dragon Age Online. A blueprint of sorts, which we’re all beta-testing.

Tuesday - November 25, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Problem With Roleplaying Games

by Redsocialknight, 05:51

It's another half-hearted review of the new Dragon Age ("I quite like Dragon Age: Inquisition" he waffles) from Erik Kain writing at Forbes, but he uses this one to talk about his problems with looting and crafting in modern games in general. He gripes:

The only thing that’s really dragged the game down for me is the necessity of picking herbs and looting bags. This isn’t terrible at first, but it becomes enormously tedious after a while, simply because it’s such a big part of how you spend your time in this game.

Looting bags strikes me as pretty archaic in modern video games [...] There’s nothing good about picking up yet another basic weapon that’s not worth anything and is leagues worse than the gear you already have. [...] It’s so often less about playing a role and more about all the other stuff.

“RPG elements” can just be code for “gamification of video games.”

"Gamification of games" is a little tail-swallow-y for me, but let's go with it for a second.

Gamification is often used in educational applications. Take some piece of work—say learning about biology or math—and have “leveling” and rewards and such for achieving certain things. [...] My daughter’s math homework is partly done online and finishing a unit rewards her with little sticker icons. When grades aren’t enough, XP will do the trick.

Gamification is inspired by video games but it’s come full circle and is used to create feedback loops in video games and genres that traditionally didn’t have “RPG elements.” Think of the leveling in Call of Duty multiplayer. It creates an addictive reward cycle as you rank up that’s not present in older shooters....

Anyway, his main point is that harvesting all that elfroot over and over is boring, which is certainly true.

...there would be no humans in Dragon Age of ethnicities which were not present in Europe in larger numbers in the late mediaeval age. As a "POC" myself, I found that to be perfectly reasonable- a game set in 4th century Africa probably shouldn't have white people in it either!In Dragon Age: Inquisition, this entire idea has been completely and absolutely removed. There are now people of all ethnicities in Thedas. As I said, I am not white myself, but this feels out of place. What's more, Bioware, unable to retcon everything about its lore, painstakingly built over the past decade, has decreed that everyone with a skin colour darker than tan (that is to say, Arab/Persian looking, Native American looking, East Asian looking, South Asian looking, Indian looking, and African looking) all have heritage from the one tiny nation in Thedas that is not light-white (Rivain), thus shoehorning all the 'POC' into one little country.

A quote from his conclusion about the world in Dragon Age: Inquistion:

A world made by developers who didn't have a backbone to stand up for what they had created, and capitulated to bizarre internet pressure to build a happy-dappy paradise where good people are good, bad people are bad, and any 'grey' moral conflict can be sorted with a quick check to which faction you signed up to.

Sunday - November 23, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Impressions @ Giant Bomb

It only took a few minutes to get up to speed. It's entirely possible series fans are upset how action-friendly BioWare's made Inquisition, but it also means just about anyone can understand the basics by the time the first combat sequence is over....... Even though Inquisition represents the third game in the Dragon Age series, it's not the conclusion of a trilogy. There's dangling threads from the previous games, but everything hasn't been building to this event. It's simply another chapter, and one that invites newcomers as much as it rewards veterans.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Impressions @ Inc Gamers

But BioWare have been making all the right noises about Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’ll have a tactical camera, they say; it’s being designed primarily for PC, they say. Considering the ludicrous Kickstarter and post-Kickstarter success of several other tactical CRPGs (Project Eternity/Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2,Torment: Tides of Numenera…) it’s not entirely impossible that EA has actually taken notice of this and said “oh, go on then, make a proper CRPG.”

A quote on the options when starting the game:

Graphics aside, there are a number of other options. There are subtitles for both ambient dialogue and full conversations, and there are separate options for text and speech language (although in my version the only available language is English, so that’s kinda superfluous to me). There’s even a Friendly Fire option for that full Dragon Age: Originsexperience, but as it’s turned off by default, I’m not touching it. While I miss having to very carefully aim my abilities, if Dragon Age: Inquisition wasn’t designed around friendly fire then I suspect turning it on would make me very sad, very quickly.

A quote on the tactical camera:

I fucking hate the tactical camera. It is incredibly, absurdly, stupendously useless. The tactical combat itself might be fine - it's got auto-pauses, and I can select skills and click on enemies, and I can even see which other characters I've assigned to attacking that enemy and what skill they're going to use. That's pretty great. I still can't shake off the MMO feeling for some reason, and I've still got worries that the game was designed to be played in the third-person view and the tactical combat was slapped on afterwards, but there's clearly been at least some thought given to battling in this way.

Friday - November 21, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - HD Concept Art

Dragon Age: Inquisition lead concept artist Matt Rhodes has been busy sharing a variety of highly detailed and wallpaper-worthy pieces of concept art from the game on his personal blog and ArtStation page, so if you're looking for something new to adorn your desktop with or simply want to revel in the work that goes into bringing a video game to life, you now have a definitive destination.

We've been following these issues closely and are looking into them. Player experience is a top priority for us. Our goal is to address as many of these as possible in our upcoming patches, including some in our next patch, which is underway. We'll release further details in the coming days and will continue to monitor your concerns.

Wednesday - November 19, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Dawn Will Come

by Aries100, 22:35

Ever wondered what would happen if David Gaider and a composer sat down and wrote something together; well this is what you'll get: a song called The Dawn Will Come from the DAI soundtrack. You can hear it here.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Rumor of DRM breaking SDD drives

by Myrthos, 22:29

You might have heard the rumor by now that the Denuvo anti-tamper technology on Dragon Age: Inquisition and also Lords of the Fallen is reducing the life expectency of SSDs by performing large amounts of writes to your hard disk. There are several threads on the topic. Here is one on Reddit. The source of this information appears to be Russian.

The company itself denies these rumors and states that: "Denuvo Anti-Tamper does not constantly read or write any data to storage media" and: "Denuvo Anti-Tamper does not continuously encrypt and decrypt any data on storage media. To do so would be of no benefit in terms of security or performance".

Unless there is some actual proof that can be reproduced and/or verified, this rumor is just what it is, a rumor.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - How to Respec

by Aubrielle, 06:57

Apparently you can respec in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Follow the link for advice that may be a tiny bit spoiler-y.

Sometimes you think a move will be sweet and it turns out to be trash. In Dragon Age Inquisition you can respec you skills so you aren’t stuck with a bad move for the entire game. Find out where you can respec in Dragon Age Inquisition here!

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Review Roundup # 4

Inquisition is clearly balanced with the third-person perspective and real-time play in mind. So it’s a shame that the third-person is sort of a poor man’s Dragon’s Dogma with an even worse camera and no sense of grip or weight. By the middle of the game, an AI-controlled sword-and-board warrior will be almost immune to single-target damage, and you’ll let them tank everything in real time as you mop up whatever enemies the computer hasn’t already killed for you. If you want strategy, go back to Icewind Dale.

And yet I played Inquisition much more than I had to. I killed eight dragons. I reloaded conversations to see every branch. I restarted long missions when I realized I’d forgotten to bring a character who might change them. (Take an elf to the elf places.) I keep hearing the score in my head—the big stupid parts, not the subdued ones.

For all its mythical trappings, at its heart, Dragon Age: Inquisition presents us with the most intoxicating fantasy at all: That we will be loved, respected, and followed to the ends of the earth. That we will be able to make time and space for everything and everyone that matters to us. That even a world as vast as our own can be saved, if we only work together.

If anything suffers as a result of this wide-reaching, impressively large amount of content, it's the fact that a game has a diluted focus. The potentially world-ending threat of Dragon Age: Inquisition doesn't feel to have stakes as real even as the relatively enclosed story of the second game, for instance, and many of the characters don't quite shine quite as brightly as those in Bioware's other titles - in large part because they are no longer the star of the show - that title now belongs to the excellent world of Thedas and the complex, fascinating politics that dominate it.

By offering such a breadth of content and then giving the player great freedom, Bioware greatly risks overwhelming many players - but that risky scattershot approach has, I feel, paid off here. If you're the type of player who loves that kind of freedom, you're in for an incredible treat. It's certainly the best Dragon Age has ever been.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - GameTrailer Review

It's surprising, then, that the broad narrative is quite predictable. An old, powerful evil has risen up, commanding a horde of demons bent on causing ruination. As a chosen one of sorts, you're in charge of building a force capable of taking on this evil and closing the demon rifts with a special mark on your hand. It's all so cliche that it's shocking how little impact it has on your enjoyment. Dragon Age: Inquisition is not a game reliant on broad strokes, but instead dozens of small stories that build a meaningful whole. These stories largely come from characters.

A quote on how the story progresses:

What can be frustrating is how Inquisition gates progress. In order to complete the story and conduct certain side operations, you need to spend a currency known as power, which is obtained by doing tasks both large and small in various regions. As the power requirements jump higher and higher, it feels like Dragon Age: Inquisition is artificially extending the hour count. Since there's so much to do, it's not an egregious sin, but it's definitely a needless one.

Inquisition marries the spirit and scope of Origins with the flashier approach of its sequel. The first area you venture into after the linear opening is bigger than the whole of the first game - and it's crammed with things to do. Side-quests are usually presented and dispatched with minimal fuss or moral dilemma, but completing them earns you power which can be used to access new areas or standalone missions. You select these from the war table at your fortress, which is customisable right down to the choice of drapes, and the whole of Orlais and Ferelden is your playground.

It's self-contained, despite drawing on so much history that has already been written - much of which is affected by player choices in the previous games. Those who aren't up to date with the series or have lost data can make all those choices before they begin. And everyone with the slightest interest in dungeons, dragons or dialogue should begin. With Inquisition, BioWare have handled the narrative and consequence of conversation and action with more assurance and depth than Telltale, while also constructing one of the finest and most forward-looking CRPGs ever made And I'm as delighted and surprised as anyone.

The review from 4players.de tells us about a game where Bioware apparently tries to have it both ways i.e. both have an open world a la Skyrim and Bioware's own story telling world. They don't like the mix and the blend of these two, hence the low score.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Definitive Guide to DA Keep

by Aubrielle, 21:17

Didn't finish either or both Dragon Age prequels? Need a refresher or a guide to the Keep? PC Gamer's got an article that can help.

As Phil notes in his review, Dragon Age: Inquisition's massive scope is matched by the complicated and sometimes overwhelming ways in that it interacts with pre-existing Dragon Age canon. I've been playing it too, and even with a thorough knowledge of the previous games - and having read all of the novels and comics - it takes a little work to hold Thedas' complicated history in your head all at once.

This is particularly true if you're just getting to grips with Dragon Age Keep. Rather than import saves directly from previous games, BioWare have opted to allow you to configure a world state via an online application. This helps you to resolve plot holes, ensure that every decision is registered correctly, and even change a few if you're not happy with how things went. That said, configuring Keep with a fuzzy memory of Dragon Age isn't easy. For that reason, we've put together this extensive guide to every decision it asks you to make.

Needless to say, this is going to be a long article and it will involve heavy spoilers for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and their DLC, but no spoilers for Inquisition itself. The hope is that it'll help you establish your world state just-so in time for Inquisition's release, whether that means reminding yourself about decisions you made back in 2009 or configuring a new save file based on the Warden or Champion you have in your head.

Saturday - November 15, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Unavailable in India?!

In a recent post on EA’s website, the company claims that the long-awaited Dragon Age: Inquisition will not be available in India. At 06:11pm GMT yesterday they released the following statement:

“In order to avoid a breach of local content laws, Electronic Arts has withdrawn Dragon Age: Inquisition from sale in India. Unfortunately, that means we’re unable to fulfill your Origin order.

All affected purchases for Dragon Age: Inquisition will be refunded. This applies regardless of payment method or date of purchase.

Dragon Age: Inquisition may still temporarily appear in your Origin library, but it will be removed before its launch date.”

Breach of local content law typically pertains to manufacturing number or percentage in host location. So, it is interesting that the game has also been lifted from all digital platforms as well as retail.

And in an update...

We have still not heard back from EA... There is a general consensus that the game was removed due to explicit sexual content and homosexuality but users have also reported that Inquisition has been cancelled in the entire region, with orders getting cancelled not just in India but in Bangladesh and other areas.

UPDATE: It's been confirmed that EA isn't releasing in India because of the issue of homosexuality in the game. Source.

The distributor for the game, Milestone Interactive said that this refers to the game's homosexual sex scenes. Rather than face the wrath of some of India's more prudish segments of society, EA have pre-emptively decided to make the game unavailable in India, without confirming or commenting on which local laws were being breached.

Sources close to the matter who chose to remain anonymous have said that this refers to users who have taken offence to some of EA's earlier games such as Dante's Inferno. Unfortunately, the exact details of the judgement in that case are not available online but it is clear that EA is willing to avoid entering the market at all, instead of risking another court case.

DA:Inquisition - Pre-Loading & New Trailers

by Couchpotato, 06:00

So are you tired of all the Dragon Age: Inquisition news in the last two weeks? I hope you aren't as I have more to share today. Up first EA shares new you can now pre-load.

Starting today, those who have pre-ordered Dragon Age: Inquisition can download and install the game early, making it available for play the second it’s available on November 18. With the world on the brink of collapse, there’s no time to waste.

Just launch Origin, click on the My Games tab, then click on the Dragon Age: Inquisition tile in your Origin Games Library. After the game finishes downloading, it will be installed automatically. That's easier than convincing a templar that not all mages are obsessed with blood magic!

Next I have two more trailers I found today for everyone to watch. The first video shares more footage, ans information on the games Tactical Camera.

Friday - November 14, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Review Round # 2

Even with the staggering amount of dialogue and lore, newcomers to the franchise will have no trouble hopping right in, while old school fans will undoubtedly grin at the various call backs to past events. There’s even an enjoyable small multiplayer mode to participate in that’s entirely separated from the main campaign. Like a good hundred hour long novel that never lets up, Dragon Age: Inquisition is so engrossing you won’t be able to put it down.

The only major disappointment is the central story arc. In concept, it sounds cool: The Inquisition is formed to close a demon-filled breach in the sky, unite the paralyzed power groups of Thedas, and stop an Elder One from taking over the world. However, when you actually reach those beats in the story, many of the would-be defining events feel abrupt or poorly explained. This would normally be a death knell for an RPG, but in this case, the main narrative is just one of the many stories woven into the experience.

Influence is basically the XP of the Inquisition itself. As you gain Influence you rank up the Inquisition, unlocking perks which can be used to customize the way the Inquisition works. Some unlocks can only be opened by having certain prerequisites met, such as finding specific Agents. All of this unfolds gently, meaning you won't be totally overwhelmed by the strategic elements while focusing on the more straightforward party-based campaign and questing. It's quite a lot more in-depth than anything in the previous games.

The story presents choices that remind us that even when you're striving for good, there are myriad ways to reach the destination you have in mind. Should you execute the man who tried to kill you, slap him in chains, or put him to work? All of the decisions you make have repercussions, as certain party members or even entire factions may object to your choices. Better than either of the previous Dragon Age games, Inquisition makes you feel as if you're affecting the world with nearly every choice you make.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup # 4

In this game, BioWare has delivered characters who feel real. They feel real because the writing team, headed up by David Gaider, managed to write them that way. Writing is something BioWare has always done well, but here, the team has excelled, filling an expansive world with stories, ideas, words and people who, together, create an immense fictional entertainment. Put it this way: If you're going to spend a hundred hours with a bunch of people, you'd better enjoy their personalities.

A quote about the writing:

Dragon Age: Inquisition's writing proves that game characters can be deep and complicated, that they don't need to serve as limp puppetry, badly mimicking the favored archetypes of well-meaning programmers. Writing is emerging as a key component of the great gaming experience, certainly in those games where characters are required to speak and to have personalities. Such characters go a long way towards creating a narrative that presses itself into the shape of the gaming experience, rather than floating uselessly above.

In other DAI news, Lady Insanity has made two videos with tips how to play DA:Inquisition.The first video deals with AI and movement. You can watch it here.The second video deals with how to play a rogue. You can watch it here.

Thursday - November 13, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Review & Trailer

In Ferelden, BioWare appears to have really gone to town on the vocal accents. Previous games have included juicy dollops of real-world regional parlance and tone, but it's ramped up to eleven here. There are characters that sound like they've just stepped out from Coronation Street or Eastenders, Eastern Europe, North America, Ireland... The list seems endless. Except in Orlais, where everyone inexplicably seems to have a strong French accent.

A quote about one of the quests in Orlais:

Of particular note, a lengthy section during the later stage of the game sees our hero have to survive at a masquerade ball. Staying on good terms with the judgemental social elite is paramount to acceptance at the venue, and remaining there is essential to unravel a complex plot that involves planned assassination and the usurping of a family member to the throne. There's sneaking, eavesdropping, social engineering, moral choices, and ultimately an epic showdown with swords and bleeding. Nothing like this existed in Dragon Age before, and at times it felt like Assassin's Creed Unity (which is set in France) accidentally leaked some of its creativity into BioWare's studio.

Thanks to dancing_midget at the DA: Inquisition forums for finding this review.

In other news EA Games Australia and New Zealand today released a new trailer called the Breach. You can watch it here.

As always, thanks to Hrung on the DA: Inquisition forums for finding this trailer.

DA:Inquisition - ​11 Things You Should Know

Yesterday, I finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. By "finished," I mean that I played the final story mission and watched the credits roll. Getting to that point took me 85 hours, but I still don't really feel done with the game.

First things first: If you're reading this, you're probably wondering if Dragon Age: Inquisition is any good. Well, is it? Yes, it is good. Fantastic, even. Is it better than Dragon Age 2? Yes, and in fact it feels like a borderline-hilarious overcorrection for every single one of that game's faults. Is it better than Dragon Age: Origins? That's probably more up for debate, but I'd say I prefer it. Short version: This game is pretty awesome. People are gonna love it.

Wednesday - November 12, 2014

DA:Inquisition - New Interview & Trailer

As my time with Laidlaw came to end, I asked him to recall his somewhat unorthodox arrival in our fair country. Shortly after he landed, a customs officer asked him to prove his bona fides by identifying his favourite game of all time. After a brief moment of consideration, Laidlaw went with Star Control II. The official considered this to be a credible selection, which is fortunate, because it’s a long flight back to Canada. “I just hope whoever is in charge of immigration doesn’t hate Star Control,” Laidlaw mused. “That would be tasteless. That game is very good.”

If Laidlaw needed confirmation that there was still an audience out there patiently awaiting a new instalment of Dragon Age, he received it from the aforementioned customs official, who gave the series his personal seal of approval. He, along with everyone else, will be able to pick up a copy of the game for PC, as well as current and past gen consoles, when it arrives.

Bioware also released another trailer that focused on Varic this time.

Varric is a handsome and lovable dwarven rogue. He is as loyal as they come, and well-known for his stories of embellished proportion. Despite his jovial persona, few enemies live to regret crossing him. Those on Varric’s bad side are introduced to Bianca, his faithful crossbow. The threat will unite them… you will lead them.

Sunday - November 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ Gamespot

In a non-spoiler example he provided, a group of refugees take up residence on a lord's land. The lord will approach the Inquisition with a request to have the refugees removed from his property. Players consulting with the diplomat will have her encourage them to talk to the local bands and find a new location for them. Speaking to the spies will reveal the option to have them removed. If the commander is asked, he will offer to help the band because he finds the lord is "a bit of a jerk." Here, Dragon Age: Inquisition will offer a variety of paths to take in decision-making, with results ultimately emphasised through consequences that may surface further down the path.

A quote on how DA: Inquisition compares to DA2 and DA:Origins:

"It's closer to Origins in overall feel. It's bigger, it's bolder. It plays slower than [Dragon Age 2]. That said, there were some things for DA2 that I felt were very powerful. The characters I felt did a better job of having their own stories or agendas. So we held on to a lot of that. We wanted to make sure they had their own arcs, whether you were romancing them or just friends. The other big thing that we kept from DA2 is that combat in general feels responsive. I think DA2 was very successful in making you feel like oh, I tagged that guy and moved in, I punched him in the face. Some people would get annoyed because they thought I was dismissing Origins, but when your character took a long time to shuffle into position it was like, 'you're a trained warrior, you can do better.'"

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup # 3

Much like my experience in the first two games were encapsulated into single moments, Dragon Age: Inquisition changed all my expectations with a prompt. "You have discovered region 6 of 29." Dragon Age: Inquisition is massive and I'm suddenly eagerly awaiting its release. Earlier this week was my first time getting hands-on with Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the folks at EA and BioWare gave us an extended six hour session to really delve into the world.

The Escapist pens this conclusion based on the hands-on preview:

Honestly, having not paid a ton of attention to Dragon Age: Inquisition's development this preview has really sold me on the game. It's everything I'm looking for in an RPG, an interesting story and characters, a large world to explore filled with little details, and solid combat to back it up. If the game manages to keep up the same quality as the initial few hours then I think BioWare has a masterful RPG with Dragon Age: Inquisition.

At any time in battle, you can freeze the action and switch to an overhead view, which allows you to give specific commands to your party and watch them play out at whatever speed you'd like. The only problem, though, is your lack of options: You can only tell the characters not under your control to attack a specific enemy or defend, and... that's it.

A quote from US Gamer's conclusion:

To be completely honest, Dragon Age never really grabbed me in the past, but during my hands-on session, I found myself getting absolutely wrapped up in exploring-which isn't always easy to do in the highly controlled atmosphere of a press event.

The Iron Bull is a powerful Qunari warrior, and leader of the Bull’s Chargers, a famous network of mercenaries. With his immense strength, and enthusiasm for crushing enemies, he provides necessary muscle to the Inquisition. The threat will unite them… you will lead them.

Saturday - November 08, 2014

DA:Inquisition - Combat Video @ Eurogamer

Aoife Wilson gets cracking with the Dragon whacking in this preview of Dragon Age: Inquisition's combat mechanics. Have they hit the right balance, or is it a swing and a miss? Find out in this video preview which features brand new gameplay!

DA:Inquisition - New Trailer & Interviews

As the influential leader of the Inquisition, the weight of your decisions will be felt across the world of Thedas. Everything from the race of your Inquisitor to the dialogue choices you make in conversation has an impact on your story. How you choose to lead is up to you, but remember, in Dragon Age: Inquisition choices have consequences. Making a new ally can also lead to the creation of a new enemy.

I also found a few more interviews today. The first one is from Stevivor who talks with Creative Director at BioWare Mike Laidlaw at PAX Australia.

At PAX Australia, Stevivor's Steve Wright was lucky enough to sit down with fellow Canadian and Creative Director at BioWare, Mike Laidlaw. Together, the pair discussed the game's new Frostbite engine, character customisation, crafting and more. We drop you in mid-discussion.

I spoke to series lead designer Mike Laidlaw last Friday, the first day of PAX Australia – just before Inquisition went gold. Wrapping up a major triple-A release, globe-trotting on a promotional tour, he had little interest in the prospect of making more content for Inquisition right now.

Tuesday - November 04, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup # 2

Valeera was the chosen one and her life was about to become quite a bit harder.Primarily because her hand was glowing with the same fizzing green power, which it's soon deduced is the only way to shut the smaller breaches and possibly the main rift. For her detractors, the mark only confirms that she must somehow be to blame for, well, everything. So there's your set-up: A kingdom under sudden demonic threat.

Cassandra seems to be important:

The main source of exposition and narrative drive early on comes from Cassandra Pentaghast, a Chantry Seeker who also appeared in the last game but not as a party member. Having led me on an an initial mission to shut the rift, the results of which can best be described as ‘a limited success’, she reforms the Inquisition in order to investigate who’s behind the demonic shenanigans. Cassandra is all business and a mostly quite grumpy, but I suspect will morph into the stoic, almost painfully-loyal type.

Things happen quickly, and within a short period of time, the player is chosen to be the one spearheading all efforts to prepare the land for an imminent demon invasion. To be frank, I felt like the game got rolling too soon - it felt somewhat implausible that my character would become so immediately important and be put in charge of so much, and the game throws a lot at the player right off the bat. Before I was done exploring the first area, I accidentally chose to be whisked off to the next, and upon entering this new land, I had accumulated no less than twelve new quests to be completed in the first five minutes.

Another thing he noticed:

What I loved most about the original Dragon Age was how strongly the characters were written, and how much connection there was with them based on lengthy conversations and a process of getting acquainted. None of the things I was asked to do in the first five hours of Inquisition began to even approach the kind of characterization I was hoping for. What I got was a lot of busywork fetchquests of little significance - a long checklist of things to do because... that's what gamers want, I guess?

He, Brad Galloway, also mentions that the game looks and feels like Skyrim:

After spending five hours with the game at the preview event, I was left with the impression that the Inquisition team must have been madly in love with it - The return to Thedas I played reminded me of Tamriel at every turn. - See more at: http://www.gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/dragon-age-inquisition-preview-an-errand-girl-for-the-kingdom#sthash.nGnEkKDb.dpuf

After spending five hours with the game at the preview event, I was left with the impression that the Inquisition team must have been madly in love with it - The return to Thedas I played reminded me of Tamriel at every turn.

A video preview from Video Gamer TV can be found here. They played the gamefor 4 hours. They compare DA: Inquisition to DA: Origins. Apparantly, quests in this game (at least for the first 4 hours) are not that interesting, they are typical fetch quest, which you can't turn down. They also talk about Bioware's fascination doing something new and different and in each game as well as the combat and much much more.

Mark Darrah, executive producer on the title, explained to GamesIndustry.biz the challenges and opportunities of bringing the series to a new generation, why this installment has a multiplayer component, and Bioware's progressive approach to inclusivity.

As part of our extensive hands-on session with Dragon Age: Inquisition, we also got to speak with the game’s executive producer Mark Darrah. Here he discusses what lessons were learned from the second game and explains why we may be entering a new renaissance for RPGs.

This is the sort of game that you can get sucked into and lose yourself in, which I have experienced personally. Dragon Age: Inquisition has gone from not even being on my radar to holding one of the top spots for games I want to pick up this Holiday Season. If you are a fan of the series, you are definitely in for a treat when the game launches on November 18. Hell, even non-fans, like myself, are in for a treat as well.

And for last remember the game that failbetter games was working on for Bioware? It seems it will be a browser game that will work inside the Dragon Age Keep.

A while ago we revealed that we’d been collaborating with Bioware on a secret project. Terrible oaths have kept us silent. We wrote our names on a page of flesh beneath a weeping moon. But now we are released from our promises. And we intend to spill.

We are proud to reveal Dragon Age: The Last Court, a very Failbettery game set just before the forthcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition. It will be playable in your browser and features the text-driven, story-rich gameplay that powers Fallen London.

In Dragon Age: The Last Court, you are the ruler of Serault: an eccentric fiefdom at the farthest ends of Orlais. As the Huntress or the Scholar you’ll guide your realm through the most crucial period in its history. Will its ancient Shame be forgiven? Or will Serault fall into obscurity?

Electronic Arts and Bioware have released a new set of screenshots for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Dragon Age: Inquisition releases in 18 days and promises to be better than its disappointing predecessor.

Sunday - November 02, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Gameplay Video

All new Dragon Age 3 Inquisition gameplay walkthrough shows giant spiders, baby dragons, the Skyhold on the PC . Stay tuned to Open World Games for more Dragon Age Inquisition let's plays, tips, weapons, and more.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Has Gone Gold

I’m excited to announce that Dragon Age: Inquisition has gone gold on all platforms! This milestone is a testament to the hard work of the developers (and their families!) who put so much into this game, and took on every challenge that was put before them. That we’ve made it this far is also an acknowledgment of tremendous support and patience from our fans: you’ve been an inspiration to us since the beginning.

Friday - October 31, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - What is the Keep?

by Couchpotato, 05:15

Bioware released a new video yesterday to go along with the Beta release of the Dragon Age Keep. It's only two minutes long so it wont take long to watch.

The Keep is your way to discover, shape, and share your Dragon Age experience. Explore plot points and story arcs from previous Dragon Age games. Crown rulers, topple foes, and forge bonds in over 300 decisions as you prepare your world for the coming Inquisition.

The Keep is a free web application, available on all platforms and browsers with HTML5 capability. No prior purchase is necessary, and the Keep is an excellent resource for players who are new to the franchise.

Sit back and watch as Brian Bloom, the voice of Varric Thethras, recounts the major moments from the previous two games. Learn about the conflicts and events leading up to Dragon Age: Inquisition as you discover the history of a world in turmoil.

Thursday - October 30, 2014

DA:I - Dragon Age Keep Released

by Couchpotato, 16:16

Bioware announces the Dragon Age Keepis now released for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

As this is the last release before the Keep goes to open beta (don’t worry, there will still be more updates after this one), we stayed focused on squishing more of those pesky bugs. This is to ensure the Keep is in good shape before we let everyone in and start adding more fancy features. Here’s what’s new:

Plot choices that wouldn’t stick should now stay as you set them (except in IE9 and PS4 browsers).

The autosolver should no longer flag valid world states as invalid, and vice-versa.

More issues with the Interactive Story Summary (ISS) have been smoothed out (eg. freezing or audio cutting out - also, subtitles have been added!).

Improved functionality of the Keep for mobile and tablet devices.

A 400 error (The Response content must be a string or object implementing __toString(), "boolean" given) that was preventing some from using the Keep has been resolved.

For more information on other stuff we’re currently working on that hasn’t been fixed yet, check out our Known Issues list. If you find an issue that isn’t on that list, let us know with your feedback.

And don’t worry about submitting feedback after we go to open beta. The Beta Feedback Tool will still be there, and you’ll be able to send us your suggestions, thoughts and bug reports as normal. Thanks for all your help so far – the Keep wouldn’t be where it is today without you!

Wednesday - October 29, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Music Interview

EA Games released a new interview for Dragon Age: Inquisition with Audio Director Michael Ken about the games soundtrack, and posted a few samples.

What were some of the inspirations behind the audio in Dragon Age: Inquisition?

Early on in the project we set out to redefine the audio for the Dragon Age series. We started by reviewing the last two games and came up with a top 10 “do’s and don’ts” list. We also spent some time figuring out what sets Inquisition apart from the other two games. We decided that we wanted the game to sound very dynamic, where the audio was always moving and changing, lots of highs and lows, loud and quiet moments.

The goal was to inform the player of the impact and worth of their actions through aural feedback when interacting with the world. By making the world believable and captivating through audio, this will help completely immerse the player as they explore the Dragon Age world.

Why does the audio in video games matter?

Audio is 50% of the experience when playing a video game. Audio provides emotion, and also helps tell the story. Audio is what immerses the player in the game.

How does a video game soundtrack begin to take shape?

Early on in the process we start to define different aspects of audio for the game. We wanted the music for Dragon Age: Inquisition to be sweeping, thematic, and emotional. We then had to decide what the major themes for the game were, and define them emotionally. Once we have an idea of what we want, we then look for a composer who can deliver what we are looking for.

Tuesday - October 28, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Will be at PAX Australia

"The entire BioWare team is delighted to give Australian fans the opportunity to get hands-on with Dragon AgeTM: Inquisition," said Mike Laidlaw, Creative Director at BioWare "Dragon AgeTM: Inquisition will give players more choice to explore unseen territories, lead the Inquisition through battle and make unique decisions that will define their overall experience. The level of detail built into the game is outstanding and we're excited to bring our game to PAX Australia and meet our fans."

If you're interested in whom Bioware is sending they will be sending these:

Fans will have the chance to meet special guests from BioWare Edmonton Mike Laidlaw [Creative Director], Aidan Scanlan [Assistant Director of Design] and Mark Wilson [Lead Technical Designer] who will be taking questions during the Dragon AgeTM: Inquisition Q & A from the audience and Twitter using the hashtag #DAIPAXAUS.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

Dragon Age: Inquisition could well be BioWare’s apology letter for the failings of Dragon Age II and even Mass Effect 3; it looks like a strong and solid offering thus far and is honestly the only (read: the only) game that I’ve looked forward to this year. The only one. That might be because I’m a fan of BioWare games but surely there’s reason for that given how much I get accused of being tough on everything else… right? Maybe they’re a great series of games or something? Time will tell and very soon we’ll see if Inquisition stands up to the test.

Rating Summary: This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of a warrior battling evil forces in different dimensions. Characters use swords, axes, hammers, and magic attacks to kill fantastical creatures (e.g., demons, monsters, dwarfs) and humans in melee-style combat. Cutscenes sometimes depict characters impaled or getting their throats slit. Violent sequences are often highlighted by cries of pain, gurgling/gushing sounds, and large blood-splatter effects; blood remains on the ground in several environments. The game includes some sexual material: a female character briefly depicted in front of a man's torso (fellatio is implied); characters depicted topless or with exposed buttocks while lying in bed or after sex; some dialogue referencing sex/sexuality (e.g., “'I will bring myself sexual pleasure later, while thinking about this with great respect'” and “The way your t*ts bounce when I pin your arms and take you on the side of the bed…”). The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” appear in dialogue.

Wednesday - October 22, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Inquisitor & Followers

by Couchpotato, 05:56

Bioware released another trailer for Dragon Age: Inquisition this week that gives us a look at the games Inquisitor, and various followers that will join you.

What kind of hero will you be? As leader of the Inquisition, your decisions not only shape your journey, but that of your followers as well. Join us for a closer look at the Inquisitor and a trio of the Inquisition’s followers. Each character has a reason for joining the Inquisition, and each bring their unique talents to the fight. Learn more about them in our latest video.

Monday - October 20, 2014

DA:I - Walking Tall with Miranda Raison

We talk with Miranda Raison, who voices Cassandra Pentaghast, about what it takes to step into the shoes of the Right Hand of the Divine. She tells us how Cassandra has changed since we last met her and what we can look forward to with her in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Friday - October 17, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Strategic Preview

The Dragon Age games have never been known for their brevity. If you're looking to play Dragon Age: Inquisition, you need to be ready to sink a good 60 hours into it, and that's just for the main story. If you wish to explore everything the game has to offer, you’ll need to pour in upwards of 150 hours.

This is a game created for the older generation, the gamers who were challenged every step of the way and who didn't have infinite lives to continually die over and over again. That's not to say Dragon Age: Inquisition only gives players three lives, or punishes even the slightest mistake like Dark Souls, but this isn't a walk in the park, either.

While many assume Dragon Age: Inquisition is an open-world game like Grand Theft Auto 5 or Skyrim, that's not entirely the case. There are 10 main locations in the game, all of which offer considerably more area to cover when compared to previous games in the series. In fact, the areas are so large that mounts have been introduced to assist with travel.

GamesBeat: What was that experience like - working with a new engine - for a team that tends to make such huge, expansive games? Flynn: It was fantastic. It's funny, because we didn't know what to expect. We did a bunch of research into the engine four years ago now, even before Dragon Age II shipped, as we were deciding what our technology strategy was going to be for the next five to ten years. We did that work and then we went in with both feet and said, "Well, the best way to make use of this is not only commit all of our titles to it, but then also to work with the teams directly to offer our suggestions and focus on the things that we need to do to make our games good." With the Frostbite team handling a lot of the heavy lifting around core rendering loops and specific stuff around the platform, we focused on the RPG elements and the things we need to do to extend Frostbite to make our first RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition. That was everything from updating the animation system to support quadrupeds - everything from horses to dragons - to putting pauses in the game.

Here's Flynn's take on framerates:

GamesBeat: There's been some recent - other developers have said that they have a sort of philosophical belief that 30 frames per second can be better in some situations than 60 frames per second. Do you guys hold with that, or ideally would the game be 60 in all situations?

Flynn: No, I agree with the first statement. For me, to move to 60 fps, very crudely, you're halving the amount of time you have to render anything. Something has to be given up to achieve 60. For the right game that may be the thing you have to do. A competitive, PvP-based shooter, for example, you want that smoothness to optimize the experience. You can live with lower-quality textures and simpler animations, especially because you're not rendering the player character in that case. But you might find that in a different kind of game, you want something more lush, something richer in texture detail and character detail. Maybe you need to drop down to 30 to deliver that. Again, as long as you're getting a steady framerate, as long as you're getting something that is smooth and unhindered, it falls to the kind of game and the experience you're trying to give to players.

Wednesday - October 15, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Hero of Thedas

by Couchpotato, 05:38

Well another day and another trailer for Dragon Age: Inquisition has been released. This time it's a new video about the Hero of Theadas.

Demons plague the world and terrorize the people of Thedas. The faithful cling to their belief in the Inquisitor, who must lead a team of legendary warriors into battle and bring the conflict to an end before it’s too late. Every war has its heroes. What kind of leader will you be?

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

EA, the publishers behind the latest entry in BioWare's RPG series Dragon Age, recently held a small press event in New York City to demonstrate some of their newest titles. One such game on display was Dragon Age: Inquisition. I was invited to play a demo featuring a large side-area, one not crucial to the main story, according to the PR rep who was on hand to answer questions. After getting past my initial wave of excitement from getting a new game in my hands, what I found was a boring and repetitive, but graphically gorgeous, hack-and-slash game.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will take players between 150 and 200 hours to complete all content, according to BioWare producer Cameron Lee. Dragon Age games have always been long, meaty affairs, but the world has changed since the release of Dragon Age 2. Does BioWare think players who are a few years older and, more than likely, have more life responsibilities will come back to spend more than a full week's worth of time playing one game?

Well, yes. Lee believes that there is still a place for the long game in our current market, and Inquisition has been built with those players in mind. The customary "long game" of BioWare's stories has become something of a genre in and of itself.

"We want to give our players a real world to explore — we want to give them a BioWare story," Lee said. "A really vast, epic BioWare story. That's what we do, and it normally takes 20 to 40 hours anyway to tell the story we want to tell."

A few BioWare devs have taken some time off their schedules to explain Dragon Age: Inquisition's approach to healing and health management on their official forums, in an attempt to quell the discontent that is being expressed by a number of fans. Interestingly, neither of the two devs actually comes from BioWare's design department.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Interview

The folks from BioWare Edmonton and EA were in town to finally let us get some hands-on time with the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's the third title in the franchise and the team behind it hopes that they've blended the best elements from their previous works to deliver the best Dragon Age experience that they can. We caught up with the game's producer, Cameron Lee, who filled us in on on how this new approach of "playing the way you want to play" will work in Inquisition. They've taken in a lot of the feedback from the community on what's worked and what hasn't worked in the past to deliver an RPG, they hope, will live up to the Dragon Age name.

It's clear that Electronic Arts' PR is really starting to push Dragon Age: Inquisition now, in anticipation of its November release, as even more gameplay footage of the title has come out.

First of all, there's a Twitch stream from yesterday with creative director Mike Laidlaw and executive producer Mark Darrah playing the PlayStation 4 version of the game. During the stream, the developers showcased character creation, some combat, with and without the tactical camera, and some exploration gameplay.

Then, of course, there are a number of YouTube videos from people that have been invited to play the game by EA.

We recently got a hands-on look at the PC version of Dragon Age: Inquisition to get a sense of everything it has to offer. And because BioWare is a developer whose roots are in PC gaming, you can bet this version of Inquisition is the real deal. It's fine-tuned for excellent mouse and keyboard play; it's got dozens of visual and interface options to tweak; and, of course, it's got 4K resolution and AMD Mantle support for the hardcore rig-building crowd. In fact, we've teamed up with BioWare to reveal the very first screenshots of the PC version, along with its HUD and system requirements, all of which you'll find below. But first, let's talk about how the game plays on PC. During our time in The Hinterlands, we had a nasty run-in with some demons of the Fade. Using the WASD keys for movement, we charged our maul-wielding warrior into the fray, activated one of his abilities via the sleek PC action bar and smashed an enemy square in the face, incapacitating it for a short time.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - More PC Videos

Quite a few gameplay videos for Dragon Age: Inquisition have popped up since yesterday, and they seem to follow more or less the same pattern as the last one: they have all been filmed by YouTubers that got a chance to play the game at EA's headquarters, are sponsored by EA Ronku, and show a PC build of the game played with an Xbox controller.

DA:I - Building the Dragon Age Keep

Dragon Age fans have made some tough decisions over the years – choosing who to kill, who to save, and how to shape their world. Your actions have changed Thedas, and BioWare is making it easy to bring those years of choices into the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition. Instead of relying on you keeping your save files for nearly a decade, it has built a tool that will let you redesign the world to match your choices. It’s called the Dragon Age Keep, and Origin.com caught up with Leah Shinkewski (Producer) and Fernando Melo (Director of Online Development) to find out what inspired the creation of this exciting tool.

DA:I - Crafting & Customization Q&A

Bioware posted a new Q&A on the Dragon Age: Inquisition website three days ago where Creative Director Mike Laidlaw talked about Crafting & Customization.

An introduction to crafting & customization from Mike Laidlaw:

Before we dive into your questions, let's talk about Inquisition's crafting at a high level. Our goal in allowing you to create your own armor and weapons was twofold. First, we wanted you to have a lot of opportunities to customize your look. Second, we wanted to encourage experimentation and, if things were really cooking, targeted creation.

One example we always used when describing the goals of crafting was that of the dragon hunter. We wanted you, as a player, to have the tools necessary to build armor and weapons custom-tooled toward hunting one of our massive namesakes.

To that end, we developed the concept of the schematic. A schematic determines the shape of the blade if you're crafting a sword or the shape of the core armor if you're crafting protective gear. Each schematic takes some combination of metals, leathers, and cloths, and the materials you choose to use determine the effectiveness of the gear, any bonuses built into it, and the visual appearance. A serpentstone blade, for instance, will be a dull greenish color, and onyx will be a shiny black.

Once you have a core piece of gear, you may also be able to upgrade it. If an armor can take upgrades, they will change the shape of the armor as well as add new properties, but will inherit the color scheme of the core body of the armor. Similarly, if you install a new hilt or pommel onto your sword, it will smoothly unify to match the rest of the blade's color scheme.

Oh, and you can name any gear you create, of course. Perhaps you're a Chumbawamba fan and want to call your war hammer "Nugthumper." Who are we to deny you such simple pleasures?

Sunday - October 05, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Artbook Leaked

by Couchpotato, 05:41

GameranX has news the artbook for Dragon Age: Inquisition was leaked, and posted some information about Morrigan. It might be considered a spoiler.

Dragon Age Inquistion is not due for release until mid-November - the 18th in North America and the 21st in Europe - however, it seems that some BioWare fans in Russia have already received copies of the associated artbook, which is due out around the same time.

Those with the book promptly posted images from it online and while the BioWare forum thread about the leaks has been closed, some images and details about the game have been saved by Redditors.

Some new information on Morrigan was also revealed, and you may want to stop reading now if you'd like to avoid spoilers. In the original game, Dragon Age: Origins, it was possible to defeat the archdemon through a ritual with Morrigan which involved either a male Warden, Alistair, or Loghain having a child with her.

Instead of capturing the essence of the archdemon and dying, its soul instead passed to the child, who appears in Inquisition if you agreed to the ritual. Here's what the artbook, roughly translated, says about the Korchari witch and her son.

I wont post the full information so read at your own risk. We at least finally know the god baby was born, and looks like he might be in the game.

Saturday - October 04, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

by Couchpotato, 05:39

Well time for another news roundup for Dragon Age: Inquisition. So lets get started with a new trailer from Bioware about Crafting & Customization.

Join us for an in-depth look at the crafting and customization systems of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Personalize your Inquisition by customizing your followers’ gear and combat tactics. Collect recipes used to create powerful upgrades and potent items. Explore the world and gather ingredients to craft one-of-a-kind items!

During a roundtable discussion with EA and BioWare, RPGamer learned much more about many of the customization options available for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The team answered question about character customization in terms of appearance and skills as well as crafting and armor customization. Here's a look at some of the highlights from this discussion.

New epic artworks are now available for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The new shots show off the male and female human Inquisitor. Of course, gamers can also choose to play as a Dwarf, Elf and Qunari along with the gender option. Other companions from the party are also featured with Blackwall, Cassandra Pentaghast, Cole, Dorian, Iron Bull, Sera, Solas, Varric Tethras and Vivienne all getting the spotlight.

DA:I - The Multiplayer Has Potential

This is a first draft of cooperative multiplayer Dragon Age, and it feels like it. As revisions are made and the team tunes the formula in concert with the community, the combat and encounters could easily improve and provide the verve they're currently lacking. Underneath, the foundations and potential are there.

Tuesday - September 30, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

by Couchpotato, 05:03

Another day and we have more news for Dragon Age: Inquisition. To start the news-bit I have a new video from Bioware about the Dragon Age Keep.

Learn how the Dragon Age Keep works and discover some of its key features. In this presentation from PAX Prime 2014, developers Fernando Melo, Leah Shinkewski, and Justin Edmond discuss how the online platform works to get your game ready for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

BioWare’s creative director Mike Laidlaw and producer Cameron Lee answered a few Dragon Age Inquisition fan questions on twitch today, unveiling a substantial amount of new content. Combat has grew and progressed into something way more engaging and intuitive. It’s already known that taking cover and jumping will be two new movement actions that will aid combat in Inquisition but there’s more. Players will also experience, for the first time in Dragon Age history, how to play with free cast. Casting skills anytime, anywhere will become a possibility

BioWare presented Dragon Age Inquisition’s customization system today thought a one hour twitch stream. The new system will be much more complex, detailed and complete. Even though, the body cannot be changed, the face can be altered in every imaginable way. The system is so dense that players will be able to, for example, shape and color their Inquisitor’s inner and outer iris. Inquisiton’s customization system in an open door for possibilities.

DA:I - Interview & Character Creation

BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw and Cameron Lee will be streaming a reveal of the Dragon Age: Inquisition character creation system (plus new gameplay) on 29 September. That news comes from the Dragon Age: Inquisition site, which also lists the start time for this stream as 10am Pacific (US).

So, anybody wanting to watch some exciting Inquisition face-shaping action from the UK should start watching at 6pm. European viewers should also adapt their times accordingly. The stream will be on BioWare’s Twitch channel.

Not only will you be getting “a first look at Dragon Age: Inquisition’s deep character creation tool” but there’ll also be the chance to “customize an Inquisitor from scratch with your suggestions!” I’m trusting the internet to customise this poor victim into the sort of hideous freak-monster the Inquisition needs to save the realm.

DA:I - New Interview & EGX Video

PSLS: One of the other huge things is the addition of being able to romance gay characters and what not. How has the public reacted to that and how has maybe the public shaped that change?

CL: So, the reactions are always interesting – generally, they are mostly positive. Some people don’t like it, that’s fine, they can… think that way. But the vast majority of people, they think that’s a good thing. We’ve tried to represent a variety of different people, and different sexualities and gender as well. You can be a male, you can be a female, you know, you can change the way that you look, you can have different hairs, different skin tones. So, you know, you give all that type of control to a player that they are… it would seem silly to not also give a choice about their sexual orientation. But yeah, general reception has been good.

Read the link for more information as it's to long to post it here, and now here is the full presentation from EGX 2014 this week to along with the one from yesterday.

Neil Thompson, Director of Art & Animation at BioWare, invites you to discover the vast open world of Dragon Age: Inquisition through a gameplay demo and more at EGX 2014 sponsored by Virgin Media!

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Skyhold Interview #3

[DRAGON AGE]: Let's talk about the role of the Inquisitor. How much power do you have as leader?

[CAMERON LEE]: As the Inquisitor, you have an authority that spans nations, shaping events and issuing commands to your agents throughout a land in strife. Your power over the fate of thousands also has a personal side. The burden of leadership falls to you, and right or wrong, your choices will have an impact on the lives of those who cross your path.

[DA]: That brings us to the topic of judgments in the game. Can you expand a little bit on that?

[CL]: Sure. The innocent, the misguided, the foolish, and the righteous all must decide which side of the conflict they support, but if they choose poorly, they may find themselves standing before your throne awaiting judgment. This is one of the ways you can see a personal side to your enemies and understand their motivations—and just as importantly, it offers you a chance to reflect on your own decisions and actions throughout the game.

[DA]: So, you quite literally assume the role of judge, jury, and executioner?

[CL]: Exactly. When you sit on your throne in Skyhold, your advisors will bring a prisoner to you for judgment. Your advisor will read the charges and provide additional information before you have a chance to question the prisoner yourself. Then you'll be asked to decide their fate. Your choices won't be black and white, but shades in between. Set them free, recruit them into the Inquisition, execute them yourself, make them your court jester, or even make them Tranquil are just some examples of the sentences you can pass in a judgment.

[DA]: As with any decision, there may be repercussions to deal with, right?

[CL]: I'll say this: how you judge your enemies may have an impact on your Inquisition. For example, can you live with having an evil agent join the Inquisition if they make it more effective? Other sentences may affect side quests, operations, Skyhold itself, and even your closest companions, so choose wisely.

Thursday - September 18, 2014

DA:Inquisition - Video preview @ GameInformer

by Couchpotato, 01:21

GameInformer has a new video preview for Dragon Age: Inquisition that is based on a few hours of palying a short demo from Bioware.

After gracing our cover last September, the wait for Dragon Age: Inquisition has been eating away at fans eager for their next-gen return to Thedas. Game Informer's Joe Juba and Kimberley Wallace traveled to Bioware Edmonton last year for the cover story and recently Joe returned to finally gets his hands on the game. After playing for hours and writing a large feature for the new issue of the magazine, Joe sat down with Kim to discuss how the game feels and his overall impressions of the experience.

Watch the video preview below to learn what Joe thinks of playing with the combat and exploring the world of Dragon Age: Inquisition and how it compares to previous entries.

Wednesday - September 17, 2014

DA:Inquisition - Skyhold Interview #2

Two weeks ago, Dragon Age fans were introduced to Skyhold—the Inquisition's base of operations—through an article from our friends at Game Informer. Following the article, we caught up with Dragon Age: Inquisition producer Cameron Lee to ask a few follow-up questions. In part 2 of this interview series, Cameron discusses the war table, the role of your advisors, and more!

Sunday - September 14, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Skyhold Interview

Last week, Dragon Age fans were introduced to Skyhold—the Inquisition's base of operations—through an article from our friends at Game Informer. Following the article, we caught up with Dragon Age: Inquisition producer Cameron Lee to ask a few follow-up questions.

In part 1 of this interview series, Cameron discusses what Skyhold is used for, what players can do to customize it, who you can interact with there, and more!

[DRAGON AGE]: Can you give us a quick recap on what exactly Skyhold is?

[CAMERON LEE]: Skyhold is a huge fortress and the seat of your power as the leader of the Inquisition. From there, you decide the fate of nations, direct your agents throughout Thedas, pass judgment on your enemies, and decide how you will personally take action against the Elder One.

[DA]: Does Skyhold's appearance change over the course of the game?

[CL]: As you progress, you'll notice some parts of Skyhold expanding and becoming more detailed. Murals may be painted, and trophies collected and mysterious artifacts researched by your Inquisition followers. All of this and more has a physical impact on Skyhold.

[DA]: What areas of Skyhold can players customize?

[CL]: Skyhold can be customized to reflect what sort of Inquisition you're leading. You choose what to do with major parts of the castle such as towers and the courtyard as well as decorations like statues, windows, drapes, furniture, and even the heraldry your Inquisition forces will take into the world.

Wednesday - September 10, 2014

DA:I - First RPG on the Frostbite Engine

by Couchpotato, 03:11

Jacques Lebrun the Technical Director at Bioware posted a new guest post on the Frostbite webpage about how BioWare created their First RPG with it.

As I write this, the Dragon Age team is only a couple of months away from putting the finishing touches on Inquisition, so it’s appropriate to look back at the long and arduous journey of getting to this point. Shortly after the launch of Dragon Age II, with a new generation of gaming on the horizon, we knew we needed to stretch our ambition and deliver a game well beyond anything BioWare had done before, which meant a major shift in technology and in the way we develop our games.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Skyhold Information

how the unique functions the castle serves, and how Skyhold gives players a greater sense of the Inquisition's power and progress.

Apparantly our home isn't exactly up to code when we first set eyes on it:

"When you first reach Skyhold, it's not in good shape," Laidlaw says. "There are holes in the roofs, it's wrecked, you can't even go to the entire castle because they haven't cleared out the rubble yet."

However, you can choose the way the castle interior will look like:

This isn’t The Sims, where you fuss over every detail of your dream home. The layout of Skyhold is generally standard, but the Inquisitor makes decision regarding the décor and other elements of the renovation process. For example, if a tower needs to be rebuilt, you can decide if it is outfitted to accommodate mages or Templars, depending on your allegiance. Or, if your character is a Dalish elf, you can furnish the castle with Dalish woodcarving.

Here's a rather interesing quote about the resources you'll need to keep an eye on:

When it comes to expanding your Inquisition, you need to track three different resources. The first is influence, which is effectively like your Inquisition's XP, and it grows as you adventure and complete tasks. When the Inquisition reaches a new level, you can spend points on global upgrades like the ability to carry more potions or the chance to harvest extra crafting materials. The second resource is power. While influence constantly grows, power is more of a currency that you earn and spend down. Power is used to advance the main story, but also to unlock optional areas at the war table. The third resource is time. The Inquisitor doesn't handle every problem personally, so special missions called operations (also unlocked with power) allow you to send agents to finish them in real time. After a set amount of time passes (some operations can take a full day or more), the mission is complete and you get your reward.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Another Roundup

Leonid Melikhov: Tell us from a top level what has changed in Inquisition? How is it different from Dragon Age 2 and yet has the same feel and vibe as Dragon Age Origins?

Mike Laidlaw: Well, that’s a good question. There are really two big things that have shifted. We’re really trying to do “best of” for the Dragon Age feeling, because we talked about this as making it the defining Dragon Age experience. That means pulling in the tactical camera from Origins which was only good on PC.

Putting it on all 5 platforms, which was a fundamental decision from day one, and being able to retain our focus on that has really worked for Dragon Age which makes it kind of unique and stand out. Focusing on the party, party dynamics and interaction, both when you’re engaging in dialogue and when you engage in combat. You’ve got four characters direct under control the way you go.

Those are the things that I think are really critical to keeping it feeling it like Dragon Age, but our opportunity was when we moved to Frostbite, the new engine. It was like “oh wow, we need to retool a lot of stuff” but it was an engine that was used to make jet fighters fight over the top of tanks, fight over top of guys and we were like “well we could do big spaces right?” We could actually go back to exploration and in Origins I think we wanted that feeling but the engine could never quite match it.

With Inquisition, we’re letting you set a few of your own objectives to pursue your own goals and basically be able to crest the bridge and go “hey, what’s that thing down there? I wanna find out..” and that sense of discovery is just so much better.

In the end though it really should not matter what was done or how the game is; extreme hate and anger is never helpful nor justified. It certainly sucks that you will not be able to romance your favorite character with a male qunari in Dragon Age and its no fun that your favorite sniper rifle no longer shoots as fast. The way you played or want to play the game has been changed its not what you wanted it to be. Being upset at that is okay and it is certainly okay to let BioWare or Treyarch or DICE or whoever that you are upset. But you if you just scream at them “you suck! go die in a fire!” they will not listen. That message is just meaningless and does not help them understand why you are upset so it will be ignored. Now if you tell them “I disagree with this latest thing because of x and y” well then they might.

At the very least its worth having respect for them as a fellow person who is just trying to do the best they can at their job. And after all, while you may not like how the game turned out, you would not have it at all without them. That is worth something at least.

Thursday - September 04, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roudnup

by Couchpotato, 06:08

Alright time foe more article , and videos for Dragon Age: Inquisition. So lets get started with a new video from Pax Prime 2014 with Outside Xbox.

Morrigan returns for Dragon Age: Inquisition and although the Witch of the Wilds is not a playable party member, she is important and, according to producer Cameron Lee, less of an 'ice queen' this time around. For this and other Dragon Age: Inquisition titbits such as the new-look Fade, undead horse mounts and Mass Effect's Samantha Traynor doing the voice of a female Qunari Inquisitor.

Here are our “core” romance options. They are available to players of any race, and fulfill our first design goal of providing multiple options to everyone:

Cassandra is interested in male characters.

Blackwall is interested in female characters.

Josephine is interested in both male and female characters

Iron Bull is interested in both male and female characters

Sera is interested in female characters.

Dorian is interested in male characters.

Two “additional” romance options were added to the game as a result of the extra development time DA:I received. They are more limited in scope, largely for reasons directly related to their story arcs, but are otherwise the equal of the other options:

Cullen is interested in female elves and female humans.

Solas is interested in female elves only.

This means that of our core cast, Varric, Vivienne, Cole, and Leliana are not romance options. While we know this may disappoint some fans who were interested in them, we don’t believe that they lose out, as each character engages in their own meaningful story.

The reaction to Dragon Age 2 was perhaps not what you would have wanted. What have you learned from or responded to most from that.

MD: Criticisms of weight is one. Weight is a big, huge thing we've changed. Now you're not swinging a six foot foam mallet, you're swinging six feet of steel when you're a two handed warrior.

ML: It has a lot more impact. We've tried to keep the pacing and responsiveness of the second game, but some things are deliberately a bit slower. Being able to cast a fireball and have it go bang, but then having your enemies run away from the area of effect before it hits -- that all works really well. Talent trees were very well received from DA2, whereas in the original it was like "here are four dots and you can buy rank four after rank three". People were bored by that.

Inquisition is the third main game now, and you have millennia of history in the Dragon Age world. How do you keep that straight amongst yourselves, particularly when story paths can branch off?ML: We hired a crime reporter. We actually did. One of our editors is someone we brought on initially as a contractor and then hired full-time because he's fantastic. He is a research specialist and was a crime reporter with the Edmonton newspaper. He's very dedicated and very thorough -- crime isn't something you want to mis-report -- and what he'd do is comb through everything in Origins, everything in the novels, everything in Dawn of the Seeker, the comics, all the different products. We've developed this internal wiki that tracks the states of all the characters. There are various fields for the characters: Dead, Alive, and Quantum, for characters like Alistair who may or may not be alive depending on player choice. Within the entry, it explicitly says "If Dead: This. If Alive: This". So we have that as our internal reference, and while the fans maintain a really good one, they can't put notes about what's coming, so we have to have our own.

According to Wired the next part of the interview will feature design decisions.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ PC Gamer

There are nine potential companions, but despite the effort they took to design, voice, and write, you can skip meeting or recruiting most of them entirely, and they can be dismissed at any time. Inquisition's combat system finally gives equal favor to its real-time and pausable approaches to fighting.

And a quote about the Dales Highlands:

The intro to the Dales is incredibly light. An arcane, malicious blizzard has grasped the area's rough, typically-thawed cliffs, icing the river that nearby Sarhnia depends on for food and trade. What I notice throughout this area, and appreciate, is the lack of heavy-handed exposition about who, what, where, and why: the theme of the Highlands, as I discover simply by fighting through it, is driving out an invader and advancing the frontline.

A quote on Inquisition perks:

Also nestled into the War Table (but separated from operations) are Inquisition perks, which draw on influence that you gain from exploring Thedas and completing quests. (If power is "Inquisition gold," as Darrah puts it, influence is Inquisition XP, effectively.) There are four perk types: Forces, Secrets, Connections, and simply ‘Inquisition', the first three of which are tied to those previously mentioned advisors. A Forces perk might increase your potion capacity by four; a Secrets perk might increase the XP you earn from picking up codex entries; one Connections perk grants better merchant offers on rare items. Skyhold changes as a reflection of which perks you favor, although I wasn't told how.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Another Roundup

Support will include ME3-style chests, which will players unlock new characters and items, and will be available through in-game currency or microtransactions. In addition, Bioware are planning the free release of updates and levels. All of which sounds extremely similar to Mass Effect 3, which was supported with new content for a decent amount of time. If Dragon Age: Inquisition can get new stuff for longer, it'll be a healthy boost for what sounds like a promising mode

While BioWare has announced that the RPG will host a multitude of free and appealing add-ons such as such as additional characters and periodic new multiplayer adventures, it will also offer the dreaded in-game purchase. In this instance it’s geared towards buying Platinum, the game’s currency, which can be used to buy essentially anything for MP but does not effect the single-player mode.

The internet is in an uproar. The ramble rousing has commenced. Can you hear the people sing? Sorry, they aren't singing. Rather, they're tweeting in frustration over Dragon Age: Inquisition. Apparently, people forgot that, despite being developed by BioWare, Dragon Age: Inquisition is an EA game. And EA, being ever so money hungry, likes to shove microtransactions into every possible game. See where I'm going with this?

In case you haven't, let's spell it out. Dragon Age: Inquisition has microtransactions. They tie into the game's cooperative, online multiplayer mode. Let me elaborate. These microtransactions are optional, as everything in the multiplayer mode can be earned via hard work, elbow grease, and dungeon grinding. The items that could be purchased with "platinum" could be bought with gold coins as well. Also, the online multiplayer itself is completely optional, and doesn't touch the main game.

During a visit to BioWare’s Edmonton studio, I got a chance to play the newly announced multiplayer mode for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The company has talked extensively about what the game’s single-player campaign entails, but this new co-op mode will be uncharted territory for some Dragon Age fans – especially those who did not play Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer.

Thankfully, there’s no reason to be intimidated; Inquisition’s approach to co-op is accessible and easy to understand. This step-by-step guide gives you an idea what to expect from your introductory hours of multiplayer, and how that experience can evolve over time.

After what felt like 10 minutes, it was time for the next group to come in, and I found myself eager to have more time with Inquisition. While I rage quit on Dragon Age II’s corridor-like external locales, my time with Inquisition cast the right kind of magic over me to restore faith in the franchise and show that the BioWare promises are on track for an engaging action-RPG experience.

And for last a new article that talks about the game being Bioware’s most ambitious, and dangerous game yet from Gamingtrend.

Though Dragon Age: Inquisition may spell the most ambitious game the company has created to date, it also marks the dawn of a new age. Fresh hardware has hit the market and has had a full year to mature. PCs are more powerful and cheaper than they ever have been, with large amounts of memory available to both platforms. Dragon Age II spent less than two years in development which clearly hurt the end result, but Inquisition has had nearly double that time to bake. Dragon Age Keep shows a hefty amount of effort in taking into account the decisions of the past, but we can only hope that the ending sums up it nicely. I, for one, am not worried though. While the good Doctors may be gone, the age of Laidlaw, Darrah, and others have just begun.

Wednesday - August 27, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

MSN Games has an interview with BioWare who talks about the Frostbite engine, and the terrible ending of the Mass Effect series. So here is a small sample.

"It's changed a lot," Dragon Age: Inquisition producer Cameron Lee told GamesFIX. "One of the most important aspects that's changed is that there's a broader expectation of what gamers want."

It takes only ten minutes with Inquisition to understand Lee's mentality: there's so much to take in for a game set in an open, sprawling game world, and it's clear that BioWare is creating it's most ambitious game yet.

That ambition is fuelled by a game engine - by definition, a game "engine" is a a framework that makes the game run - that has become known by gamers as the engine for first-person shooters. It's the first time "Frostbite", an award-winning technical architecture that allows for truly spectacular virtual environments, has been used for this type of game.

"In order to do something with what we're doing with Inquisition, the scope of it, the depth of it, it wouldn't have been possible on the previous engine," Lee explains. Having multiple open areas that let you explore these different environments and themes, not to mention the destruction that the game experience dictates, just wouldn't have been possible without Frostbite.

"We've spent a bit of time building upon the core Frostbite engine, which was obviously made as a shooter engine, so we've had to build a lot of stuff."

And it seems IGN has confirmedDragon Age: Inquisition will have also have Multiplayer. It seems the game will allow Co-op play, and be all about the loot.

Cooperative multiplayer is coming to Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the four-player adventure isn’t as close to Mass Effect 3’s online mode as you might expect. Both share qualities, particularly in their economies, but in almost every instance, Inquisition’s levels, characters, and economy are significantly deeper.

Saturday - August 23, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview & QA

AusGamers: I find that games nowadays rarely seem to be single genre. So, every shooter you’re looking at nowadays has RPG mechanics, as a given. But when you go over to the RPG world, it’s a bit more difficult to find those obvious links to other genres, I mean, outside of the idea of an action-RPG. What sort of other genres or games specifically outside of the RPG realm are you looking to, and how will we see that evidenced in Inquisition?

Cameron: Great question, and putting me on the spot when I’m really tired.

AusGamers: You’re welcome.

Cameron: Influence comes in from all kinds of places. It could be movies: our art director is a big fan of Japanese movies and Renaissance art, so you get influence everywhere, and that’s just from the art side of things. From a game-design point of view, they could be, I’m trying to think, like operations at the war table, there are many games that have done this concept of, I have people working for me and I’m going to use this UI to order them to do things. And so when you look at that and you go, okay, well we have this big organisation that we lead, how do we lead them? And then how do we make it immersive, how do we make it part of the game world? Then you start thinking about, okay, what if you really were a commander and you had a war table, you could imagine, generals would have in medieval times, and then what would that mean? Okay, I can now order my people out, and then you start linking it back into other systems that you have, and that’s really where the iteration and the development comes from. So, for example, as a leader of the Inquisition, you can judge people. You have a throne, right? And you can sit on the throne and you can judge people, and a number of those judgements can actually lead to you making people serve you as an agent, so you judge them and say, ‘I’m not going to cut your head off, but you’re going to come work for me now.’ So they become agents, and by getting agents, you speed up or enhance some of the operations you can do at the war table, so all of these things link together in that way. We look at this influence in a variety of different ways. Sometimes, you’ll be sitting there at night playing a game, or sitting there in bed and go, ‘Shit, that was really cool fun,’ and then you start to follow it through and it takes on a life of its own now.

Bioware also posted a new combat Q&A on the games website. Unfortunately the questions are random, and I'm short on time so just read the link.

Friday - August 22, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Keep Questionnaire

Eurogamer has a new article with some leaked images, and information about the new Dragon Age Keep that helps players shape the game world.

Images from the Dragon Age Keep beta have emerged online, and they reveal a detailed questionnaire designed to determine the state of the world in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

The images, which popped up on Imgur and were spotted by Reddit (via VG247), contain spoilers for both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. The questionnaire is pretty detailed, and digs into much of the major decisions made during the first two games in BioWare's fantasy role-playing series.

Thursday - August 21, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Details & Screens

In Dragon Age: Inquisition there will be 4 different Races: Dwarves, Elves, Humans and Qunari.

Dwarves are short, stocky, and most spend their entire lives underground. Those living in exile on the surface are commonly merchants or smugglers. Because dwarves have no connection to the Fade, they cannot be mages, but receive a 25% bonus to Magic Defense.

Elves are a historically oppressed people, distinguishable by their lithe frames and pointed ears. Though most survive in the poorest fringes of human cities, others live as nomads known as the Dalish. Elves receive a bonus of 25% to Ranged Defense.

The Qunari are a race of horned giants who follow a strict religious text known as the Qun. Those who have abandoned its principles are known as Tal-Vashoth and often work as mercenaries. Qunari characters get a bonus of 50 to Health.

Humans are the most numerous and powerful race in Thedas. They are also the most divided politically and seem to thirst for conflict. Human characters receive a bonus ability point at the start of the game.

In addition here is some new details about the three classes:

Mage:

Those who can tap into the raw energy of the Fade and block the whispering temptations of demons are truly exceptional. When they turn that mental focus onto the field of war, they can be truly terrifying opponents. Rains of fire, walls of ice, or even the ability to heal allies make up a mage’s toolkit. Most employ considerable skills rendering foes not only weakened, but also vulnerable to physical attacks, setting up opportunities for their teammates to exploit.

Rogue:

Armed with bows, daggers, and any number of dirty tricks, the rogue’s primary focus is damage: tearing foes down one at a time with systematic efficiency. Rogues commonly use a mixture of stealth and mobility to reach positions of advantage, be it a sniper’s perch away from enemy blades or behind an unsuspecting mage. Deadly and resourceful, rogues can tip the balance of any strategic assault.

Warrior:

Battle-hardened and masters of close combat, warriors are pivotal to any group entering battle. As front-line fighters, they absorb the brunt of opponent attacks, steal enemy focus, and create an opening for deadly ranged assaults from other classes. While some warriors prefer visceral, sweeping damage, many are silverite-clad bulwarks, weathering any blows they don’t deflect with their shields.

Sex and relationships typically suck in video games. Relationships are about sustainability, commitment, and building something meaningful, but when it comes to romantic relationships in interactive stories, getting laid is typically the endgame.

Not always, though, and that's something BioWare is learning from when it comes to improving relationships romantic, and platonic in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

MMGN: How have fan expectations changed for the genre? Do you find yourself trying to appease a different audience now than you were with the first Dragon Age?

Cameron Lee: Wow. It’s changed a lot. One of the most important aspects that’s changed is that there’s a broader expectation of what gamers want. Some players want really niche aspects of RPGs, some want action orientated RPGs, some want customisation. What we’ve definitely seen is the scope of what someone wants is very different compared to the days of the Gold Box series. It’s like, ‘Just give me an RPG!’ and we knew what they wanted. I think that these days, RPG means different things for different people.

MMGN: Bioware has been vocal saying this is the biggest Dragon Age yet. Has working with the Frostbite engine permitted you the flexibility to enhance the scope in the way you have?

Cameron Lee: Definitely. In order to do something with what we’re doing with Inquisition, the scope of it, the depth of it, it wouldn't have been possible on the previous engine. Like the Eclipse Engine, and Unreal and stuff like that.

[DRAGON AGE]: Before we begin, who is your favorite villain from the previous Dragon Age games, and why? [DAVID GAIDER]: I'd say Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins, primarily because I couldn't blame him for feeling as he did. Was he paranoid and ultimately wrong? Yes, but I could imagine myself stepping into his shoes and taking some of the same actions he did... which is a little frightening.

A quote about evil characters:

[DA]: In your opinion, what makes an evil character truly memorable?[SF]: A good dynamic foil. A viewpoint that fascinates, even if it's self-serving or covering an agenda. (There's a reason everyone remembers the cuckoo-clock speech from The Third Man.) The antagonists who stay with me typically change a story's protagonists when they clash, whether by forcing them to adapt or by irreversibly altering their entire worldview.

A quote about how Bioware creates characters:

[LK]: You need to be able to do both because it really depends on when you join a project. If you're in early enough, you can craft the character along with the role, but a lot of times the role and/or plot is necessarily defined already. I prefer knowing where they need to fit because then I know the pieces I have to work with. A lesson from growing up with LEGO: limitations breed creative solutions. The freedom to make stuff up also comes with the uncertainty of what will need to be cut. In either case, I can't do anything without keeping the needs of the overall game in mind.

Friday - August 15, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Screenshots

The newest screenshots from Dragon Age: Inquisition are now available at Gamescom. The new set displays some characters (Cole, Varric and Vivienne) along with locations (Breach, Fade, Hinterlands, Red Cliff and War Table).

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ GamesTM

Dragon Age 2 was a very different beast to Origins, and Inquisition looks closer to the original, but what key things have been brought from both games?

We started out by looking at how players used and what they liked about Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. We also look at what the market’s doing too because it’s been so long since those games; when you’re planning a game that takes three or four years to make you have to look ahead and try to predict what might happen.

We did look long and hard at everything, not just at what the core fans want but also what other fans who don’t necessarily talk to us on the forums or on Twitter and we can gauge a lot of their reactions through the telemetry data that we get.

Releasing in November, there is a small alarm bell ringing that it hasn’t been widely available to play. Even at E3, so close to launch, it was a presentation only. To allay the doubts and concerns of DA fans out there, what’s the thinking behind that decision?

It’s a really simple answer, it’s really hard to convey the context of the RPG, characters, story and concepts if people just get their hands on it and play it for five minutes. They’re missing the context, so that’s why we did it this way.

What we’ll probably do next year is an open theatre style booth – or the next time we do a Dragon Age game – so that people can see it in action but that’s really all it is. We have been doing behind-closed-doors for people to get a feel for it, but that’s a more intimate one-to-one experience with someone talking you through it.

Sunday - August 10, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Video & Pre-Orders

We took a tour on down to San Diego for Comic-Con to show off demos of Dragon Age: Inquisition and reveal new information about the next Mass Effect. Take a gander at the new Mako and learn how we created such realistic dragon fights.

EA and BioWare have announced the Dragon Age 3: Inquisition Collector’s Editions with the price of $170. The game will be available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox360 and Xbox One on November 18, 2014 in America and November 21, 2014 in Europe. The firms have introduced two expansive collector’s edition, Inquisitor Edition and Deluxe Edition.

Saturday - August 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Twitter Updates

According to Laidlaw, there will be no swimming in Dragon Age: Inquisition, a feature that every open world game really should have to be honest. It’s sort of surprising to see how many open world games simply do not have the ability to swim. As of right now, there’s no plan to even patch it in.

A feature that players immediately noticed following the recently released combat video for Dragon Age: Inquisition was that archers did not seem to have a quiver for their arrows, a feature that has been in Dragon Age since Origins. Laidlaw has confirmed that the minor detail has been added in.

Another important reveal made by Laidlaw lets us know that players will be able to fully complete Dragon Age: Inquisition before ending the main storyline.

Lastly, in regards to character customization, you will not be able to change the physical features of your companions, but you can customize their weapons and armor to your liking, according to the official Dragon Age: Inquisition Twitter account.

Red Lyrium is an anti-magic substance... an opposite force to normal (blue) Lyrium.

Tactics are in (automated AI settings as described by the writer) and apparently you can set how much mana a mage companion can keep in reserve and at which HP threshold would a companion use a heath potion.. so looks like more grained control over tactics.

After clearing parts of an area you can set up camps in that area, they give you access to scouts and you gain power, the resource you spend on operations.

Certain parts of a map can be locked until you clear other ones.

You can mark certain areas as operation points on the map so that you can deal with them when you return to your base of operations, Skyhold.

You manage your operations through the war table in Skyhold, and by doing so you get resources like gold and loot or agents, some of the operations are tied to the main plot like an operation involving the chantry in Val Royeux.

Some operations are resolved instantly and some require you to pick an advisor (Cullen, Leliana or Josephine) to resolve them, they're unavailable while conducting the operation.

There's a new resources besides power (which you spend on operations) which is called influence.

Influence gives you inquisition perks, those are divided into four types: Forces, Secrets, Connections and "Inquisition".

The first three perks are tied to the advisors. A Forces perk might increase your potion capacity by four; a Secrets perk might increase the XP you earn from picking up codex entries; one Connections perk grants better merchant offers on rare items.

Skyhold changes as a reflection of which perks you favour (doesn't elaborate more on how) though it won't be related to decorations since you do that manually from a menu. You can change everything from the windows, throne, banner, and heraldry to the drapes.

Dragon fights are all scripted and they have their own personalities.

Dragons have a main health bar and a health bar for each limb, you can't deal massive amounts of damage to it without dealing with its limbs first.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

RPG Site: Dragon Age II had a mixed response. To my eye, it felt like it critically did a lot better than it fared with the fans - many critics with no particularly strong feelings about the first game found it a solid title, but fans of the original game were disappointed. How do you approach a sequel with a fanbase that, in theory, is split? What do you change?

Mike Laidlaw: Well... the wild card for the whole thing is really the move to Frostbite, right? So, we're on a whole new engine, we're changing tech. When that happens, you basically have to rebuild all of your systems from the ground up. Frostbite is an amazing engine for visuals, but it is definitely not an RPG engine out of the box by any means.

As such, we had an enormous engineering challenge in front of us. It was a challenge, but it was also a very good opportunity to sit back and look at everything. To say, "Okay, what do we consider to be the defining characteristics of the Dragon Age experience?" Obviously, feedback for Dragon Age II was incorporated into that. But that aside, I think that's more about understanding what makes Dragon Age unique, what makes it stand out, rather than what did or didn't work in the previous game.

For me personally, if I had to boil it down to a single concept, it's the party. It's not just you; you're not a solo adventurer - you are part of a team. Teamwork in gameplay is a part of that. The fact that we have a bunch of rich characters is a part of that. The fact that the follows are probably the most beloved part of Dragon Age is a part of that. It all really comes back to the party.

As such, when we sat down to look at it... we then need to examine how we make our unique features stand out even more. That realization led to some really key decisions. It's through that core understanding that we decided that, yes, although it's challenging, we were going to do a tactical camera, being able to control the whole party, the party hopefully players love, with a full overview at any time for the whole game. That really started the whole discussion because all of our ability designs needed to work both tactically and in real time.

For the most part, Leliana has been peaceful and upbeat, devoting her life to religion and striving for redemption from her checkered past. However, she has had time to change and grow since we last saw her, and BioWare has been building her up as an agent of the Divine (the head of the Chantry). Here are some interesting issues and characteristics we think the red-headed bard will bring.

Dragon Age Inquisition is getting a super expensive collector’s edition strategy guide, according to Amazon. The Dragon Age Inquisition: Prima Official Inquisitor Edition has a regular price of $119.99, twice as much as the videogame. Amazon currently has the item on sale even though the price tag could change at any time. You can find the current amount, along with other details, right now with this Amazon link.

With the recent announcement of a new release date for Dragon Age: Inquisition, we’d also like to provide an update on the Dragon Age Keep .

To coincide with the November 18, 2014, launch of Inquisition, we will also be moving the Keep’s launch date. Accordingly, we’ll be extending our beta program, meaning there’s still plenty of time to get involved with the Keep.

For those unfamiliar with the Keep, it’s a companion Web experience that allows you to customize your story choices across the Dragon Age franchise. This ensures that regardless of what platform you play on, you’ll always have your Thedas the way you made it.

Tuesday - July 29, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Combat Video

Join us for an in-depth look at the multi-faceted combat system of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Learn how to command the battle with a demonstration of both real-time action and the strategic tactical camera.

While the Dragon Age: Inquisition delay is definitely a bummer, and makes my impatient nerve tingle, game delays are usually for the best. It would be nice if a developer could overestimate how long a game will take them to make, and end up with earlier release dates than planned. But release dates are just one of those things. When you’re dealing with something as detail-oriented as building a game, last minute things can come up.

November 18, 2014 is positively barren. Sure, Dragon Age: Inquisition will be up against Far Cry 4 and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby, but better to face competition from only two games during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year, than be one of eight major releases in a seven day span.

The point is, the Dragon Age: Inquisition isn't a huge surprise, and it's really nothing to get worked up over. True, we have to wait 30 days more, but we should think of it this way: October and November 2014 are going to be two of the busiest months in gaming, with multiple games coming out one after another. We'll all be so busy, the time will fly by.

Something happened this week that I don’t think many of us cynical gamers thought would happen. EA delayed not one but two major holiday releases, even pushing a Battlefield title until after the holiday season.

Dragon Age Inquisition was delayed from mid-October until November 18th and Battlefield Hardline was moved from October 21st until sometime between January and March 2015. EA has a history of rushing games out to hit shelves by the holidays, with Battlfield 4 being the most recent example.

Over 9 months later, Battlfield 4 is still full of bugs across consoles and PC. Some have been fixed while others have lingered since release and new problems have popped up since then. Its things like this that make EA one of the most hated companies in the US, they’re lack of concern for putting out a quality product on day one versus capitalizing on a busy shopping season.

Tuesday - July 22, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

Electronic Arts and Bioware have just released a new screenshot for their upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition. This new image shows one of the game’s beautiful environments that players will get to explore. Dragon Age: Inquisition is powered by DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine and is currently planned for an October 10th release. Enjoy!

Considering that Dragon Age has never included multiplayer support added with the fact that the Bioware had never discussed the topic for Dragon Age: Inquisition does make it seems slightly odd that they would be unwilling to deny such a feature given that fans will ultimately find out when the game launches in less than three months time. Perhaps the developer simply doesn’t want to upset gamers who love to play co-op titles by confirming that there will be no such addition to Inquisition, but those players would likely already be uninterested in a Dragon Age game.

To make the matter seem even more suspicious, Bioware also told fans to ‘keep an eye’ on the developer’s official social networking accounts to future updates on the topic of co-op. Again, if the game was going to continue the franchise’s tradition of being a singleplayer-only title, why wouldn’t the developer simply confirm that Dragon Age: Inquisition won’t have multiplayer elements? By not discussing such a major element about the game this close to launch, Bioware either wants to create an air of mystery around their upcoming release or the developer does indeed have something hidden up their sleeves.

And I saved the best for last since I know most of you will like it. A site called Jump to Gamer has a list of all things Bioware has done to kill the series.

In conclusion, it seems that BioWare are happy running the Dragon Age series into the ground, and themselves with it. Rather than list to their fans and learn from their past mistakes they are more than happy to keep steam rolling ahead. Their staff are doing everything they can to appease all groups to recoup the the fans they lost with the release of Dragon Age 2, even at the expense of using racial slurs. Will Dragon Age Inquisition spell the end of BioWare and the series? Who knows, but I for one believe that it will be a financial failure for them even if the major review companies list it as the best RPG of the decade as they did with its predecessor. No words are needed when professional critics award a game 10/10 yet the user meta-critic score is below 5. BioWare are making the same mistakes they’ve made before and this time they are coming to light before the release of the game, we need only wait until October 7th to see how many fans BioWare really have lost.

I’m writing to let you know that Dragon Age: Inquisition has a new release date of November 18, 2014 in North America (November 21st in EU). We appreciate the enormous support we’ve received from all of you to get to this point, and while this extra few weeks may not seem like a lot, I know the game you’ll play will be all the better for it.

Since we began working on Dragon Age: Inquisition almost four years ago, our goal was to create the best Dragon Age experience ever. It was that goal that motivated many of our decisions: moving to Frostbite, bringing race choice and customization back, improving tactical camera, building a team of characters whose relationships evolve based on your actions, and most importantly, crafting an epic, nation-spanning story that both draws upon past games and takes you to many new places in the realm of Thedas.

I’m privileged to be a part of a team that has been working very hard to surpass every measure they’ve set for themselves. That has meant completing huge amounts of game content, fixing bugs both big and small, and improving the overall experience. This last bit of time is about polishing the experience we want you to see. Ensuring that our open spaces are as engaging as possible. Strengthening the emotional impact of the Hero's choices. And ensuring the experience you get is the best it can be in the platform you choose to play on.

We here at OnlySP are incredibly excited for the upcoming onslaught of games coming this October. A lot of those games include sequels that are bridging the gap from PS3/Xbox 360 to PS4/Xbox One. So, we decided that we would take a look at the difference certain details between those games, from the last generation to the current gen.

This is The Next Generation Difference.

For our first Next Gen Difference article, we decided to focus on BioWare’s epic fantasy RPG series Dragon Age. Dragon Age: Origins was released in 2009 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC while Dragon Age 2 was released in March 2011. The next game will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC in October of this year. We’re going to take a look at elements of the game and compare them to each other. While some of the differences should be plain to see, it’s always good to focus on the minor details too.

All human Inquisitors are nobles from the Free March. We don't start out as a leader.The Red Templars can be automatons if the lyrium has overwhelmed the mind, but some are more intelligent.Blood magic is still morally ambiguous, not just pure evil.Red lyrium is not 'more powerful' than blue lyrium. It's something different.A hedge mage can never be a proper mage.A sarabaas is a form of hedge mage; can't do regular spell casting, they mostly just blow things up.There are Circles in Rivani as well.In Nevarra, for each person who dies, a spirit is invited into their body. This maintains a 'balance' between life and death. In older cemeteries, there are undead just wandering around.Tevinter interbreed in order to create perfect mages. Nobles must always present themselves as perfect mages and any deviancy is looked down on. Families maintain their public self image.The Tevinter consider themselves a meritocracy as even those born into slavery might become a mage, earn their freedom, and climb the social ladder. Elves within Tevinter tend to see this as evidence they have more opportunity there.David is thinking of writing a new novel.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ PC Gamer

For a game with a “dragon” in the title, battles against those creatures need to be a spectacle. Thankfully, the one I fought was promising. As I approached the dragon down a valley, he flew above and bombed me with giant fireballs that sent debris flying, and streams of fire that were some of the best effects of that type I’ve seen. I spent most of the battle dodging his attacks and firing spells and arrows at him in real-time without overthinking it, and paused the action occasionally to take advantage of Inquisition's new ability target specific body parts in order to hobble his rear legs, for example.

No demo would give us a thorough understanding of Inquisition's story, but I’m intrigued by what I saw of its approach to storytelling. In addition to its colorful mythology, diverse cast of characters, and the dialogue options that are staples of BioWare RPGs, Lee told me that my decisions will have a physical effect on the world. He said I’ll be able to build bridges that lead to new areas, drain massive lakes to reveal dungeons and destroy the fragile economy of a nearby fishing village, and other radical impacts I could have on the landscape and population.

Saturday - July 12, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

by Couchpotato, 06:11

I managed to roundup a few more articles for Dragon Age: Inquisition today, and seems more will follow this week. The first article is a new impression from the Examiner.

Recently, we had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at what BioWare has been doing with Dragon Age: Inquisition. What we had the opportunity to see gameplay that lasted a little over 20 minutes or so, and we are pleased to say that we were not disappointed at all, in fact, we were hooked by what we saw.

At a hands-on demo last week, I got the chance to ask what kind of customization options were available. As it turns out, Dragon Age: Inquisition is Bioware's most customizable game to date, with over 200 abilities, spells and upgrades to choose from in order to shape each individual member of the Inquisition as you see fit.

At E3 2014, I attended the same Dragon Age: Inquisition that forged the preview from our fellow writer Jessica Vazquez, and as we watched the female Qunari mage on screen fire magical blasts at swooping dragons (swooping is still bad), we both had the same thought: Why isn't this hands-on? All the 30-minute presentation accomplished was whetting our collective appetite for cleansing the continent of Thedas of overzealous templars and sacrilegious blood mages. Luckily, I wouldn't have to wait too long, as BioWare graciously allowed for a hands-on opportunity of the exact E3 demo behind closed doors.

Inquisition may finally help unite Dragon Age’s tactical and visceral fighters. Nothing separates the removed, strategic combat style from the up-close, tunnel-vision style, and combat overall is better for it. The player can now maximize both approaches on a whim with full control over the camera and a clean display. BioWare isn’t just giving gamers the best of both styles but also the capability to fuse them into one.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Developer Interview

AusGamers: With the larger scale of the world, how much of it is interactive? Are there a lot more side-quests?

Cameron Lee: What we’ve done with the story of Dragon Age Inquisition, it covers two nations -- Ferelden and Orlais -- and that’s thousands and thousands of kilometres of world, so the story is that broad and sweeping. We can’t make that amount of space -- thousands of kilometres -- so what we’ve done is we’ve taken the best parts, or the parts that make the most sense to the story, and we’ve made these massive open areas.

I couldn’t actually tell you… I don’t know how big it is in terms of the square kilometres, but that part of the demo that you saw -- the Hinterlands -- that’s definitely bigger than all of Dragon Age: Origins. You can go anywhere that you can see -- there’s complete freedom there. There’s all kinds of caves that you can explore into straight away; there’s villages, two different villages in that area, and there’s multiple other castles and outposts, and bandit camps and stuff like that.

AusGamers: Talking about the tactical mode you have, where obviously you can stop time and play like that, do you worry that that’s then going to create a potentially cheap way to play? The demo was very immersive, particularly watching the dragon being slain, that was awesome; then they showed me the tactical view of other encounters -- the one where they were putting the warrior at that bottleneck -- where it looked like you could almost figure out a winning strategy, set it up and walk away while it plays out.

Cameron: Possibly, but I think if they can do that, then more power to them if that’s how they want to play. The way we’ve looked at the tactical view and the action side of it, is that everyone is different in terms of how much pressure they can take in the action combat. You sound like you would be able to handle a lot of action, with shit flying everywhere and being kind of crazy; other players have a lower tolerance for that kind of stuff.

So the pause and play -- the tactical view -- you can fire it at any point, and what it does, is it removes time as a variable. So you can go ‘boom’ I can take a breather, pressure is lowered, and if that’s the type of player that they are, they can then maneuver things around. It’s really up to the player to decide how much they want to use it and how little.

The higher difficulties that you can play the game in, you’ll probably want to use it, because it’s so hard; you’ll get slaughtered. But the tactics, you can set them up, but the variable is always… even if you try to find one fantastic tactic that is going to work, the enemies are pretty smart, and they’ve got a lot of abilities that can screw with you, so they will react to the tactics that you put down. They’re going to then counter-tactic, so they might break you.

Often when we play that demo, and we put Iron Bull into that chokepoint, you’ll see some of the enemies start to try and move around. There’s actually another ramp, and you’ll see that some of them actually end up getting to the top, because you put Bull there to defend the spot. That’s an example of the AI being a little bit smarter.

AusGamers: For the PC fans out there, are you guys going to have mod support in this game at all?

Cameron: We’ve thought about it and talked about it, but we’re still kind of talking about it. I guess at this point, I can’t really go into much more detail than that.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Gameplay Trailer

Join creative director Mike Laidlaw as he walks you through part one of the award winning Dragon Age: Inquisition E3 gameplay demo. In part one, explore the largest Dragon Age world ever created and lead your followers in a battle against a High Dragon.

I also found two new articles from twinfinite from a recent Q&A. You can read the first article here, and the second one here.

Today, a Q&A session was held with Mark Darrah (executive producer), Mike Laidlaw (lead designer), and Cameron Lee (producer) about Dragon Age: Inquisition where so many questions were answered that my brain hurts.

Wednesday - July 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - In-depth at E3

Stevivor has posted a new article that takes a look at all the information from E3 last month, and gives their opinion on Dragon Age: Inquisition.

In-depth at E3: Dragon Age: Inquisition

You wouldn’t know Dragon Age: Inquisition is a cross-gen title by looking at it, and that's because it looks spectacular. Okay, maybe some of the characters faces are a little rough and some more time needs to be spent on moustache physics, but overall the world that BioWare has created is very impressive. Huge mountain ranges littered with massive trees stretch on an on and the detail doesn’t stop there. The smoke effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen and the steam rising from the ground really brings Inquisition to life.

Inquisition feels a little like an MMO and looks to have been inspired by some of the gameplay ideas associated with the genre. In battle each class has to work together focusing on their role to get the best results. You can switch between controlling any of the characters mid battle. It’s kind of like micromanaging a small raid and makes strategy increasingly important as the battles become more difficult.

[BRIANNE BATTYE]: Cullen spent more than half of his life in service to the templars. He's gone through a lot over that time. He survived what happened to the Circle Tower in Dragon Age: Origins, then watched Kirkwall fall to chaos in Dragon Age II. In Inquisition, the sky's torn open, demons are running loose, there's war… things aren't exactly looking up.

[DA]: Cullen made a pretty big decision at the end of Dragon Age II. How has his life changed since he sided against Knight-Commander Meredith?

[BB]: Meredith was Cullen's commanding officer; he wanted to trust her. But standing against her paved the way for him to help form what would become the Inquisition. The templars failed to protect their charges and the people of Kirkwall. The Order has not lived up to its ideal, and though it wasn't easy for him, Cullen now recognizes that. It's something he's still processing, but he's looking to move forward and fight for something he can believe in. The whole world's falling apart, and Cullen won't sit by and watch that happen. He wants to be part of a solution. If that means serving the Inquisition instead of the Order, then that's what he's going to do.

Saturday - July 05, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - On Critics of Dorian

Seems David Gaider has once again responded to critics of the recently revealed Dragon Age: Inquisition character Dorian being gay. Keep the comments civil please.

Bioware’s lead writer David Gaider has harsh words for people complaining about Dragon Age: Inquisition character Dorian being gay.

First off, Gaider goes off on one site’s coverage from a community interview. While a fan just had a question about Dorian’s sexuality, an unnamed site has apparently changed it completely to ‘Bioware made a press release to announce it’, as if this was done for publicity.

Then Gaider points out that Dorian isn’t just defined by his sexuality, much like any other Dragon Age or Bioware character is not. As he points out, if that is all you care about from him, that is entirely from you.

Finally, Gaider points out that Dorian is not even the first gay character he has ever written. Sera is the first Dragon Age character to be gay, and outside of that universe, Bioware has already had characters like Cortez, Traynor, and Juhani.

I would add in that as a matter of agency and character customization, when Bioware added the option to play female Shepard in Mass Effect, but leaving much of the storyline (including Shepard’s attraction to women) intact, I would argue that that, as well, amounted to Gaider creating a gay character.

As a final salvo, when asked about EA catering to the LGBT for profit, Gaider points out the hypocrisy of this argument. Is catering to straight white guys any better than this? If we have to take that argument and make those assumptions about developers at all, I would say no. You can read Gaider's original tweets below.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Meet Leliana

She has many names. Most know her as "Sister Nightingale" or "the Left Hand of the Divine." To the rare friend, she is Leliana. They say she found faith amid darkness, and that her devotion to the Maker is matched only by her devotion to Divine Justinia V, a woman who is both mentor and savior. Those who have earned her loyalty know her as a steadfast ally.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Updates

According to Mark Darrah, the executive producer of Dragon Age: Inquisition, most of the buildings will be enter-able in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Twitter user asking the question compared the game to Skyrim in terms of entering buildings and if Dragon Age would be similar.

On the Dragon Age: Inquisition forums, we’ve also learned some new details about the character development in Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is actually a very interesting read. Matt Rhodes explained in the forums that in a lot of games, if you strip down the character to its base model, most will look quite similar from one another. According to Rhodes, that won’t be the case in Dragon Age: Inquisition. You can read his full response just below.

"For those who are interested, we have been very calculated when it comes to engineering our characters imperfections. The development process has a built in erosion mechanism: many stakeholders in many review meetings tend to trim away a characters humanizing flaws and oddities, leaving little more than “pretty” and “safe” . Strip and shave most game characters today and you’d be hard pressed to tell most of them apart. We’ve worked very hard on Inquisition to safeguard our characters from this erosion process. We want to give them more identity than just their clothes, hairstyle and makeup. It’s our hope that after you’ve spent some time with them, our character’s will be as inseparable from their quirks, flaws and oddities as your own friends and family are from theirs."

Tuesday - July 01, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Twitter Updates

The creative director for Dragon Age: Inquisition has once again dropped a few small details about the game while answering fan questions on Twitter. One of the topics, might be a bit surprising for an EA game.

According to Laidlaw, there will be no DLC characters for Dragon Age: Inquisition, with every follower being “included in the game” at launch. This was a very controversial thing that surrounded Mass Effect 3 and its launch with DLC characters, which obviously didn’t sit very well with fans of the series. Especially considering how important each character was in the Mass Effect series.

Responding to another question about mounts, we learn that there will be other ridable creatures in the game besides horses. Unfortunately, dragons will not be one of them, nor will there be any mountable flying creatures according to Laidlaw.

Finally, Laidlaw also talked about the difficulty of Dragon Age: Inquisition, noting that the game is a bit more challenging than Dragon Age II with the “normal” setting get a slight bump in difficulty. According to Laidlaw, the rest of the difficulty settings will work just as they have with previous entries.

Sunday - June 29, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Dorian The Redeemer

Being from a proud bloodline of the Tevinter Imperium has its advantages: Dorian was born with a flair for magic that made him the envy of his peers. He is charming and confident, his wit as sharp as any blade, and if some suggest his manner cocky, it could be attributed to being a powerful mage in a land where mages rule. Indeed, Dorian would be the pride of his family-if he didn't oppose everything his homeland has come to stand for.

Tuesday - June 17, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Map Size Details

Dragon Age Inquisition was showcased in full glory at last week’s E3. We have no doubts that it was one one of the best games showcased at E3 besides the likes of Witcher 3 and Sunset Overdrive. GamingBolt got the chance to speak with Mike Laidlaw from Bioware who is the creative director of the game and among the various topics we discussed, we got to know how big the map will be in Inquisition.

Not only does Dragon Age Inquisition looks absolutely gorgeous but its map size is absolutely massive. But is it bigger than the one we found in Origins and Dragon Age 2 combined? The entire region from Dragon Age Origins will fit into a single level of Inquisition. Now that is massive.

“You can take the whole of [Dragon Age] Origins and the level we are demonstrating today and it will fit, all of it. The game is a multi-regional open world, it’s not like one big space. But if you travel you will come across places which are full of demons or may be a desert. They all have a distinct feel. So ye, if you can fit one game in one of the levels, we can fit of two of them with no problem in Inquisition,” Mike Laidlaw said to GamingBolt.

Sunday - June 15, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Interview

by Couchpotato, 05:51

PC Gamer has a new video interview for Dragon Age: Inquisition that talks about the world, party, and how BioWare's biggest Dragon Age Will play on the PC.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was one of our favorite things at E3. After checking out EA's lengthy gameplay demo on the floor, I inquired with Dragon Age's Creative Director, Mike Laidlaw, about how party members will influence story decisions, how Inquisition plays on PC, and a few other things I was curious about.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - More E3 News

The preview alpha showed us a promising step forward in bringing Dragon Age to a new generation. With a tremendous focus on player choice and consequence, the classic fundamentals of Bioware RPG’s appear to be tighter than ever, while still providing a fluid and dynamic story. With so many progressive gameplay elements that heighten player influence, in addition to leading a team of warriors, making the story your own remains a strong focus for Dragon Age. Laidlaw closed out the preview by saying that Dragon Age: Inquisition “represents the next generation of Bioware RPGs.”

BioWare has really played to their considerable strengths and polished up the rough patches from previous games. Team chemistry and loyalty, marvelous story-telling, and tough choices are coming together to make another BioWare hit.

While training dragons is what all of the kids are into these days, developer BioWare is still asking its fans to slay the beasts. To do that in the studio’s next big game, you’re going to use all of the tools available to you.

After our double-dose of Dragon Age: Inquisition videos yesterday, we were already pretty amped up for the huge open-world take on the Dragon Age mythos. Today, executive producer Mark Darrah and creative director Mike Laidlaw joined the Twitch.tv E3 streaming broadcast to talk more about the game’s story, crafting systems, and squad-control mechanics.

It has also recently been confirmed by creative director Mike Laidlaw that the game will have more romances than any other BioWare game. Mass Effect 3 had 10 romance options while there are 12 characters apart from the inquisitor in the image above, each one possibly being a love interest.

The romance options revealed so far include the Iron Bull (who'll romance anyone he's reasonably sure he won't break), Cullen, Cassandra, and Sera - who is only available to female inquisitors.

To this day I think Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPGs in the history of games. The sequel, however, didn’t strike the same chord. It wasn’t a bad follow-up – far from it – but the change in lead character and lack of influence from the first title meant in many ways it felt like a brand new experience. If you had never even heard of Dragon Age, II could’ve easily been your starting point. Because of this, Inquisition is suffering from the successor's hangover.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Sneak Peek

It’s a highly collaborative atmosphere in the room, says Dragon Age Executive Producer Mark Darrah, as designers call out issues which are then assigned to project leads who work to make sure the demonstration is close to flawless by the time it’s shown live on stage to the hundreds of video game journalists in Los Angeles, and thousands more fans watching online.

​“You’re trying to get everything perfect so it shows as well as it can. One of the things that we found is it’s actually quite difficult to show a role-playing game in that kind of setting,” says Darrah. “You kind of really want some time with it to let the story pull you in and sort of ‘live’ with it.”

BioWare’s presentation during publisher Electronic Arts’ press conference on June 9 will be crucial for the team as they showcase Inquisition’s still under wraps narrative, a strong hallmark of the best-selling franchise.

“This is the first time we’re really going to deeply show one of the critical paths in the story, showing you the consequences of what’s going on in the world,” Darrah says, adding “it’s time for dragons to come out in all their glory at E3.”

Scheduled to hit shelves on October 7, Dragon Age: Inquisition returns players to the fantasy realm of Thedas just as peace talks between the warring mages and templars are rocked by a cataclysmic event. The player is cast as the leader of the Inquisition, a team of fierce warriors that seeks to restore order to the land.

Creative Director Mike Laidlaw says the E3 showing will allow BioWare to hone in on relationships in the game as “there’s a real appeal to feeling like there’s this team that kind of has your back but often doesn’t have your back very well...”

“That’s one of the core things we’re exploring in Inquisition. What’s it like to be the leader? There’s a lot of emphasis on you deploying troops and giving orders and listening to advisers, so feeling more like a commander who’s making a call.”

Friday - May 30, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Cassandras Return

by Couchpotato, 01:39

Game Informer has a new article for Dragon Age: Inquisition that talks about the return of Cassandra the seeker of the Chantry from Dragon Age II.

We don't know a great deal about Cassandra. In Dragon Age II, we only knew that she was a seeker of the Chantry. We also watched her interrogate Varric about Hawke, believing Hawke may hold the key to preventing the impending war. From her interactions with Varric, it was already apparent that she's strong-willed and that she's devoted to protecting Thedas. In Dawn of the Seeker, she struggled with not letting her fury overtake her, at times being a bit reckless in her pursuit of the truth.

Dragon Age: Inquisition should give us more answers as to why she was so adamant to find out more about Hawke. When we sat down with lead writer David Gaider for our cover story visit, he let on that there was more to her role than was initially apparent. "She wasn't just investigating; there was more behind what she was doing," he said. "You find that out as the Inquisition comes around."

I'm not only excited to see what Cassandra will add to the overall story, but I also want to find about more about her as a person. I have a feeling she's more than just the disciplined, no-nonsense woman we've seen.

Friday - May 23, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ X-ONE

by Couchpotato, 05:50

The official XBox One magazine shared a few tid-bits from a new interview they did with Bioware about Dragon Age: Inquisition being their most customisable game.

BioWare has a great reputation for putting the player in control of their own story and character design in its games thanks to the successes in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Now with Inquisition though, BioWare claims it’s taking things to a new level.

“Inquisition gives players more customization than any Dragon Age game we’ve ever done.” Dragon Age producer Cameron Lee insisted to us. “In fact it’s the most customizable game ever created by BioWare.”

Hawke in Dragon Age II was a fairly defined character, a point of contention for some fans who wanted more. BioWare has looked to address this head on.

“Along with choosing race, gender, class and specialization you have more freedom to pick the types of weapons and armor your hero and party members take into battle as well as their abilities and stats,” Lee explained. “Additionally in Inquisition you can craft, modify and enchant your own weapons and armor, this includes choosing from a large number of materials and colors so you can make your characters look exactly how you want.”

What’s more you can also make changes to the appearance of your party members. “Companions are just as customizable as your character with the exception of their face and body,” Lee confirmed.

Thursday - May 22, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - PAX East Panel

by Couchpotato, 01:16

I managed to find a new video for Dragon Age: Inquisition that has the full Full PAX East 2014 Panel from Bioware. The previous one I posted in the forums was cut in half.

This is a nearly full video of the Dragon Age: Inquisition -- The Open World of Thedas panel I attended during PAX East 2014 on Sunday, April 13. There are a couple of breaks in the video, but they are not as bad as the last one. I came prepared!And, yes, that is I who asked the first three questions.

Tuesday - May 20, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Halamshiral

Bioware released another screenshot on Twitter this time for an area called Halamshiral. I also included a brief description of the city from the screenshot.

Halamshiral is a city in Orlais and the former capital of the Dales. It is situated in the eastern part of the country south of the Waking Sea and close to the border with Ferelden.

Halamshiral was built by the elves at the end of The Long Walk in the Ancient Age, its name meaning "the end of the journey" in the elven language. It was built just off the Imperial Highway so that elves from all corners of the world could find it easily by simply following the Highway. The city was under elven control for nearly 400 years.

During the Exalted March against the Dales the city was conquered by Orlais.

Saturday - May 10, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - News Roundup

It's time for yet again another round of various articles for Dragon Age: Inquisition. They just don't stop so without further delay here they are.

The first article is from EGMR who writes about how developers can learn alot from Bioware's Dragon Age Saga. Here is a small sample of their opinion.

Most recently, we were shown the multi-dimensional, deep and engaging world of A Song of Ice and Fire, through the HBO TV series Game of Thrones, and the book for those like me who read them. In it, while there are clear-cut evils and a few obvious pure goods, a lot of it is murky middle, with various Houses showing that they are mostly just in it for themselves, and seen from their perspective, a lot of their actions are completely justifiable.

Dragon Age takes that sort of thing just a step further. In Dragon Age II specifically, the Qunari and the highborn of Kirkwall must learn to cooperate. The Chantry and Templars are fighting in a battle for control with the Circle. Templars are getting greedy with their addiction, while mages are effectively being enslaved. Meanwhile, the Maleficarum is making a play for power as well. The resulting chaos is a smorgasbord of fuckery and we are left with the cliffhanger ending of all cliffhanger endings; basically, the world is gone to shit. Now what?

Unfortunately, we might never get to see that play out with Dragon Age: Inquisition seeming to go in a slightly different direction, but with all these factions still more or less in existence, plus the possibility of more, it could lead for some very interesting situations in Inquisition. I can at least say that not even the almighty Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls franchises boast this level of intricacy with its various factions and races. Who is right and who is wrong, and who are you siding with?

BioWare and EA Games have put up new images of the additional bonus content you’ll get for picking up the Digital Deluxe Edition of Dragon Age: Inquisition directly from its Origin service. These items include the Flames of the Inquisition Arsenal, Armor, and Armored Mount.

A bunch of new screenshots have leaked from Dragon Age: Inquisition showing off one of the locations in the game – Emprise Du Lion, reportedly situated in the highlands of Dale. The images, which include depict a Dragon, Red Lyrium crystals and a fort/castle, mark the latest in a steady stream of media from BioWare’s action RPG over the past few weeks, with most of these illustrating various locations new to the series. The snow-covered locale in the images below marks a nice contrast to the Exalted Plains and Dales’ Forest.

Ever since I spotted Varric in the first Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer, I’ve been excited for his return to Thedas. His jokes, tall tales, and loyalty made him my favorite party member in Dragon Age II. Sure, the rogue might be prone to embellishing the truth, but you know that he has your back. Bringing him back is a smart move on BioWare’s part, since his story has so much room to develop. We’ve seen the comedic side to Varric, but there have been hints at a hidden depth and a darker past.

The article is followed by another one on Gameranx where they share details from the recent issue of Game Informer about Dragon Age: Inquisition.

BioWare recently offered more details about its upcoming role-playing game Dragon Age: Inquisition to GameInformer in their latest issue, detailing the state of the world and how the player arrives at the central role in the story. The magazine issue also contains a number of new screenshots showcasing the game's visuals.

The third installment of the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, makes its debut on October 7th. It’s got the standard $59.99 price tag for all Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms. However, if you’re looking to pre-order on PC it’s possible to drop that dollar ammount $12 with a coupon code at the PC digital retailer Green Man Gaming.

Wednesday - May 07, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Redeeming the Series

by Couchpotato, 06:52

Hardcore Gamer has posted a new article for Dragon Age: Inquisition where they wonder if the new game will redeem the whole series. Here is a sample of it below.

The most disappointing thing about Dragon Age II was that almost all of its many problems could be traced directly back to the ridiculously short development cycle. Dragon Age Origins was released on November 3, 2009 and Dragon Age II was released on March 8, 2011. That puts the development time for Dragon Age II at a mere 16 months, far less than what most grand and expansive role playing games take in development. This is a lesson that certainly seems to have been learned, with Dragon Age Inquisition set for a October 2014 release date which puts the development time at three and a half years. With a clear stance from the development team that they are taking all the Dragon Age IIfeedback to heart and enough time in development to give the game the care it deserves, I find myself very optimistic about Dragon Age Inquisition.I am trying to remain cautious after Dragon Age II, but everything that has been shown so far makes me think this game will in fact redeem the series.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Concerns for Romances

On Concerns Regarding DAI Romances

I’ve been rather heads-down at work as of late, so I’ll admit to not being quite abreast of discussions in the fandom as I sometimes am (even though, at the best of times, I generally only get wind of such things well after they’ve occurred).

So after the excited burbling following the trailer release and subsequent announcements, it was a bit of a surprise to hear of concerns regarding Inquisition’s romance system. I didn’t think we’d actually broached the topic yet, but some comments were made in a recent interview that have been subject to speculation and some alarm. Naturally it’s not something everyone’s interested in for Inquisition, but some people are very interested and also invested in what we’re going to do.

I don’t normally do this, but since I answered a couple of questions on the BioWare forums on the subject—and have had it pointed out to me numerous times that the Tumblr crowd is not always privy to the goings-on of our forums—I’ll repost my answers here. Until we can discuss the matter at length (which will eventually come, even if it feels like it will be never be soon enough), it’s really the most I can do. If you have other questions, feel free to message me…just understand that my blog is not really intended as an “Inquisition information center”, and the questions I can answer regarding things which haven’t yet been revealed is very limited.

I hope it helps, and look forward to the whirlwind of information and speculation (as well as excitement, on our part as well as yours) to come over the next, oh, six months or so.

Saturday - May 03, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Content Complete

by Couchpotato, 00:29

David Gaider has a new post on his blog that mentions Dragon Age: Inquisition is close to Alpha, and goes into detail about what he calls "Content Complete".

We’re on the road to Alpha, also known as “Content Complete”. So there’s still new content being created, but at this point it’s more about dealing with the content we have and getting it all to work. This is also the stage where most of the big cuts happen, since we can still create new content to deal with those cuts (as in “change the writing to accomodate a change in the story flow”). Once we hit Alpha, cuts are generally things that are simply excised in their entirety, without any ability to really work around them for the sake of logic or flow.

The writing team is mostly out of the pool insofar as voiced dialogue goes, so the last of it can go through the pipeline and get edited, recorded and localized before being passed on to the cinematics people. At this point we’re mostly working on what we call “non-VO text” …the codex entries, item and talent descriptions, GUI text. Pretty much anything that needs words.

Still, we have to handle all bugs that come our way, and be responsive to any cuts that are occurring. This is a pretty stressful time for everyone. Every cut feels like it’s reducing the overall quality of the game, until there are so many of them you feel like you’re producing a piece of crap—until you remind yourself that every game goes through this, and the alternative is shipping late or not at all.

It’s not a process that any fan will truly understand. They’re usually oblivious to what’s going on, harping on what color the sails should be while the hull is rapidly leaking water. Which is a strange dissonance from our perspective, let me tell you.

Thursday - May 01, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Game Jar

by Couchpotato, 03:16

The Game Jar has posted a new article where they share their opinion on what Dragon Age: Inquisition needs to take from Dragon Age II.

With the internet understandably hyped for Dragon Age: Inquisition, thanks to an awesome looking trailer recently, I thought now would be a good time to make a confession; I enjoyed Dragon Age II more than I did Dragon Age: Origins.

I’m well aware it’s not a popular opinion, and I’m fully prepared to be told I’m wrong, but the truth of the matter is I finished Dragon Age II, and even started a second playthrough, whereas Origins lost me fairly early on in the game with little desire to return. For what its worth, I don’t believe I gave Origins the time it deserved – it lost me in that boring and badly designed set of levels where you enter The Fade; an area I wish I’d never stepped into and which made me lose all motivation to ever load up my save. That said, there was something about Dragon Age: Origins that never truly clicked with me in any of my times playing it.

Dragon Age: Origins was an RPG experience true to its, for lack of a better word, origins. It had a large vast world, tons of quests, and was very reminiscent of Bioware’s other tried-and-tested fantasy games. Dragon Age II, on the other hand, was a fine example of the changes after EA’s Bioware take over; watering down RPGs in favour of a more action orientated, and cinematic experience. That probably doesn’t help sell Dragon Age II, and on paper Origins is probably be the better game. But, there’s a lot I feel Dragon Age II did better than it’s predecessor and I wanted to discuss two factors Bioware need to carry over to Inquisition.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ Ausgamers

Warning: It has been brought to my attention you should skip the first answer as it may be a spoiler about how the Inquisition is formed in the game.

AusGamers: Is there anything in Dragon Age Inquisition that is going to just blow fans of the Dragon Age games away? Anything they just don't know about yet?

Cameron: That's a hard question to answer. Some parts of the plot will be just breathtaking. I look back at DA:O and I look back at DA2 and I look at what we've got here and it's just ridiculous. The quality of the story and of your story and the breadth of the story, and then there's things being represented and realised in cinematics and visuals that are just stunning. It's just amazing right, so I think that will be breathtaking for them, but they're probably going to expect that. It's the next generation, and you want this stuff to look beautiful and people to feel like people and the voice acting to be brilliant and the music to be great, and all those things will be true. I think people will be surprised when they fight a dragon, that's definitely different.

The Inquisition is a big part of what I think is going to be a big part of what people will find surprising as well. Your ability to impact the world directly and physically through people is more than anything I've seen in a game. When I look at contemporary competitors, similar RPGs, you have these big worlds and these big massive environments and NPCs that walk around, and some of them are emergent AI and some of them aren't but it's a static world for the most part.

I can make decisions or I can take actions in these games and a lot of the time people don't notice or they don't care, you certainly can't have a physical impact on the world. But I think we're looking at the next generation of RPGs starting with Inquisition, and this is going to be one of these things and I think people are going to want to have an actual impact on the world, so you're no longer on the static stage, you're on a stage which changes on multiple facets based on what you as a player do. So I think players of Inquisition will be surprised at that because I don't think anyone's really gotten to that point yet--even though I think it's something that all games are going to want to do at some point if they're in our sort of space.

Last week, I got a chance to talk to Mike Laidlaw, creative director on Dragon Age: Inquisition, and he told me a little bit more about the game's story—it might sound a bit familiar for those of you that have played a BioWare game before.

"The Inquisitor stands out from just anybody [in the world of Dragon Age] in large part because the Inquisitor has undergone a magical mark...as a result of being at an explosion," Laidlaw said. The Inquisitor survives the blast and receives a magical etching of sort, much like Shepard survives the beacon in Mass Effect 1. The big question is, what purpose does the mark serve?

Dragon Age: Inquisition producer Cameron Lee was optimistic when we talked about what the upcoming PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game will do to bring BioWare dialogue wheeling into the future.

He told CVG how players will shape the Inquisition and in turn the world, how it will balance a strong narrative thread with more room to explore than ever before, and what weary fans hoping for a "return to form" means for BioWare.

He also addressed whether players can expect to romance a certain crossbow-wielding dwarf, but you'll have to read on to find out about that (potential) love connection.

There are certain things we've come to expect from BioWare games. Things like an emphasis on fleshed-out characters and on structured narratives that you can impact to some degree with the choices you make. With Dragon Age: Inquisition, BioWare is aiming to maintain these design hallmarks while also placing you in a vast open world and giving you control of a much larger force than you've ever helmed before in a BioWare game. I recently spoke to executive producer Mark Darrah about how Inquisition will set itself apart from earlier Dragon Age games while still giving us the things we associate with BioWare.

The Dragon Age stories have thrilled us for many years now; with their compelling plot lines, unforgettable companions, and their tough-to-beat monsters, it’s no doubt Dragon Age: Inquisition will be amazing, if not better than the previous ones. But, there have been speculations that Inquisition will be the very last of the Dragon Age games. I’m here to ease your minds and tell you that it isn’t true, whether or not that is a bad thing is something we’ll find out together.

Dragon Age Inquisition will completely change the way its players fight dragons when it releases later this year.

“When I’m attacking a dragon, I’m not just hitting all of it,” producer Cameron Lee told IGN. “I’m hitting its leg, I’m hitting its wing, and that should matter. It should matter where I attack a dragon...that’s something we’re really trying to lean on, and when we come to E3, we’ll really be able to show it in all its glory.”

Dragon combat isn’t changed in mechanics alone -- the types of dragons you’ll take on differs considerably from previous games.

PC Gamer: I was going to ask, how much you guys feel like you have to react to your fans, to what they want, and how much freedom you have to lead them in almost any regard, from the small decisions you’re making to scoping out the future of the series and everything else?

Mark Darrah: It’s a little bit of both. From a small feature perspective things like control schemes and the way that the narrative or the way that the conversation works and stuff like that, that’s where we take a lot of feedback. That’s where we’re very much, I think people have a clear understanding of what they want and what they don’t like.

The danger is most people, myself included, aren’t perfectly objective when they’re playing a game at the higher level. Henry Ford has a famous quote. If we asked people what they wanted they’d ask for a faster horse. There’s a certain amount of truth to that.

Part of our job is to go out into the wilderness to go farther beyond what the players have seen, what they’ve played and essentially light a torch so they can see what could be and then hopefully they’ll want what we’re presenting. That can be uncomfortable. That can result in concern because obviously what they’re comfortable with, what they’ve played before isn’t completely what we’re delivering.

In the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition I think there is a core there. I think there is a core Dragon Age game at its center. I think that comfort still remains, but we will be pushing you, we’re challenging you with some new things.

Tuesday - April 22, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Release Date

Bioware sent a new press release with information Dragon Age: Inquisition will be released on October 10th , and included a new trailer to go along with the news.

EA AND BIOWARE HERALD THE NEXT GENERATION OF RPGS WITH DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION LAUNCHING OCTOBER 10

Pre-Order now to get bonus content to help you Lead the Inquisition this Autumn

LONDON, UK – April 22, 2014 – BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), today announced that the highly-anticipated, epic role-playing game, Dragon Age™: Inquisition will be available in stores and for digital download on October 7 in North America and October 10 in Europe. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the expansive, beautiful world of Thedas is being torn apart by a massive, mysterious breach in the sky. Players must assume the role of the Inquisitor and lead a team of legendary heroes to uncover the truth behind the impending devastation.

“Our goal with Dragon Age: Inquisition is to usher in the next-generation of role playing games.” said Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal. “Players will experience the rich storylines and characters that they’ve come to expect from BioWare, in an expansive world with large open environments just begging to be explored.”

Dragon Age: Inquisition is in development at BioWare in Edmonton and will be available for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC via Origin™. The game has not yet been rated the ESRB and PEGI; visit www.esrb.org and www.pegi.info for more information.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ GamingBolt

by Couchpotato, 05:20

GamingBolt Editor Ravi Sinha| has written a new article for Dragon Age: Inquisition where he wonders if the game will be more of the same, or something new.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is making the effort to be a bigger game than the second purely on the basis of criticisms and to appeal to the more open world-demanding crowd. This can be completely justified if it aids the experience and knowing Bioware, it will indeed find a way to do so. In a way, Mass Effect was a kind-of-open-world experience. You couldn’t quite go anywhere and had to complete select story missions to open up new planets and missions. So it won’t harm Inquisition if it takes a similar path as long as the gameplay justifies it.

Which brings us back to the crux of the argument: Does said gameplay make Inquisition a better game? At this point it’s hard to tell, with Bioware playing it close to the chest. We know just enough about the combat to skeptical but not enough to outright hate it. In fact, there may be tons of mechanics we’ve yet to know about that could very well make these basic slashing controls a blast.

Monday - April 21, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ EGMR

by Couchpotato, 05:37

EGMR has a new article for Dragon Age: Inquisition that takes a look at how Bioware has done romance in past games, and writes how they can improve it in future games.

Each of these games contains romance options for the player character and some have felt organic and natural while others were cringe-inducing levels of bad. It’s been rather hit-or-miss and has served to further show that BioWare are not experts on relationships either; my problem comes in when they begin to blame others for why they have failed at properly portraying relationships.

If you’re somewhat in the dark about this then that’s fine because after recent news regarding Mass Effect 4, that is exactly BioWare’s intention just for the moment. But a few months ago, one of the studio’s lead writers came right out and asked for same-sex relationships to be accepted after what he felt was unfair treatment of Dragon Age 2 with it being referred to as ‘the gay game’ because two of the male party characters could be romanced by a male playable character in the game. While his points were absolutely valid and I wholeheartedly agree that gamers need to be more accepting of romantic situations that do not mirror their own sexualities, I think that BioWare should not presume to be entirely right about their stance either.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Exalted Plains

Exploring the Dales’ Exalted Plains

Within the Dales, the Exalted Plains is a massive stretch of land ravaged by civil war and ripe for exploration in Dragon Age: Inquisition. As each distinct areas of the Exalted Plains has its own complex ecosystem, creating the Plains’ physical space in the game was no easy task.

“The first thing we [did] was try to portray the civil war and the impact it’s having on the environment and the people of that region,” says senior environment artist Andrew Farrell. “In these spaces, we try to provide opportunities for the Inquisition to come in and make its mark on the area. Then the people there rally around that.”

The Inquisition arrives at the Exalted Plains during a ceasefire between two armies at war. The bodies of fallen soldiers mysteriously rose from the dead and have driven the armies back to their respective castles in retreat.

As this is the Dales, one might wonder: what’s become of the Dalish elves?

“They’ve retreated into an area with more security away from all the fighting,” explains Farrell. “Of course, they’ve got a few problems of their own.”

The Crow Fens is one section of the Exalted Plains. In contrast to the sprawling hills elsewhere in the area, the Fens is claustrophobic, creating tension as you wonder what lies in wait for you around the next corner. According to Farrell, the Fens was the perfect playground for his imagination to run wild.

Wednesday - April 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Blog Updates

by Couchpotato, 04:53

Bioware has two new updates on the company's blog for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The first post is a quick look at an area called the The Exalted Plains.

The Exalted Plains of the Dales are characterized by equal measures of beauty and strife. It was here, centuries ago, that the elven nation met its bitter end. On these fields, the holdouts of the elven army faced the forces of the human Chantry and died, defending their promised land to the last breath. This legacy of conflict has endured, and battle once again rages in the Dales.

The Exalted Plains are now a contested battleground in the Orlesian civil war, and soldiers fight and die here in vast numbers. As the boundaries of reality weaken across Thedas, the memory of injustices past and present draws the attention of restless spirits who rise to possess the dead and stalk the living across the blood-steeped earth.

The second post is about Bioware being at Pax East 2014 with a variety of discussions about Dragon Age, and Mass Effect. You can even get a sneak peak of the game.

We’re excited to share details about our schedule for PAX East this year! If you’ve joined us at the BioWare Base in years past, you’ll know that you can find us upstairs above the exhibit hall in room 206AB. If you haven’t joined us previously, we can’t wait to see you!

We’re holding weekend long panels about Mass Effect & Dragon Age as well as behind-the-scenes looks at game development, developer signings, plus representatives from EA University/Human Resources will be on site to discuss tips about breaking into the gaming industry! If you have a portfolio of any kind, please bring it as we have set aside time for our developers to review and discuss with you.

We’ll also be celebrating Commander Shepard’s -140th birthday, which falls on the first day of PAX so please join us for a special panel to commemorate the day!

Last week we reported on some new Dragon Age: Inquisition details revealed in the latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. However, there were a few pieces of information in there that weren’t totally correct and Mike Laidlaw, the Creative Director on Dragon Age: Inquisition has clarified some things via his Twitter account.

On the subject of the number of endings in the game, which was reported as 40 total, Laidlaw clarified that there are, “hundreds of minor variants, 40 major variants, and a few completely different ends.” So while OXM wasn’t completely wrong in reporting that there were 40 endings in the game, there’s really only a “few” completely different endings.

First up, according to Laidlaw, players will be able to purchase the ability to roll in combat. Unlike Dark Souls’ roll and dodge feature, characters will have to purchase the ability to roll in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Laidlaw also reiterated the fact that Morrigan will be showing up in the game, though not as a party member. She will have a “significant role” to play in the story.

Interestingly, there will be multiple accent choices for the main character in the game. According to the developer, English voiceover will support both British and American accents.

Finally, dialogue options in Dragon Age: Inquisition will be like Dragon Age 2’s and the Mass Effect series’ dialogue wheel. There will however be “more freedom” when talking to followers, like in Dragon Age: Origins.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Writing Vivienne

“Vivienne was fun to write because she let me play around with different ways for a character to be powerful. Any mage can destroy their enemies with fire and ice, but Vivienne can rip her opponents apart verbally, politically, socially—and make ice seem like the gentlest option. She takes great pride in her work, and her interactions with a certain unnamed Inquisition mage can be a little… explosive. In a good way. Mostly.”

1. Minor variations based upon choices you make in the game or previous games. There are HUNDREDS of these variations. 2. Major variations based upon larger decisions in the game. There are about forty of these3. Completely unique endings. There are a small number of these

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ OXM

1. There will be 5 regions in Dragon Age: Inquisition: Fereldan, The Free Marches, Orlais, Nevarra and the Dales:

2 of the areas you can expect to visit are; a war-torn region in Orlais and an elven burial ground, known as the Emerald Graves.

The Emerald Graves, according to executive producer Mark Darrah, is where the Dalish Elves planted one tree for every soldier killed in the Exalted Marches.

2. Dragon Age Inquisition Companions:

There will be no DLC Companions: According to Creative Director Mike Laidlaw: "Because of how deeply enmeshed in the system companion characters are, we can't just add them on the fly; part of them has to be shipped on the disc...which was led to criticism that we're forcing people to pay for content they already own. It's not the case, but we've decided this time to not go that route. There will be no DLC party members."

Solas is an apostate and an expert on the Fade.

4.

The Prologue Section (or the "Origin" section" will be the same for all players. The player's appearance, class and dialogue responses during the prologue section will fill in the details, presumably of the Inquisitor's background, and in particular inform how other characters respond to you throughout the story.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Imperial Enchanter

Well it's Wednesday and as promised Bioware has another update on the company's blog about Vivienne . This time they talk about how they created her character.

“Vivienne was a truly great character to build,” says senior artist Rion Swanson. “I was hooked from the very beginning when I saw the first concept.”

Swanson credits the work of BioWare’s concept artists as a key component to locking down Vivienne’s final design. In particular, he recalls a lot of back-and-forth to ensure that her character met the high-quality standards of the studio.

“In the end, I think we achieved quite a dramatic look for this strong new character,” Swanson says. “The combination of sleek and powerful shapes with the ornate gold and fine fabrics gives Vivienne a pretty unique appearance.”

With Vivienne’s work complete, what does Swanson think about setting her loose on the world of Thedas?

“Watching her move through the world with flowing fabric and using her awesome mage abilities is a real nice counterbalance to some of the other heavily armored characters in your party. Enjoy!”

Referred to as Madame de Fer, “the Lady of Iron”, Vivienne lives up to her title. A leader among the mages and official enchanter to the Imperial court, she is renowned as a fearsome woman who achieved her position through guile and deft political maneuvering. Vivienne allows nothing to stand in the way of what she desires—not those who claim she is a social climber, not those who seek to restrict her power, not even her fellow mages who would conscript her into a rebellion with which she disagrees. Vivienne fights to restore order in a world gone mad…so long as that leaves her among those left standing.

Monday - March 24, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Info & Screenshots

by Couchpotato, 04:59

A poster on NeoGaf called Nirolak has gathered some new information from a recent preview from GameStar magazine about Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Gameplay notes:

-The Inquisitor can make his/her own rifts (is it the correct word for Risse) in the fade and summon demons -No fade puzzles (transformations) like Origins -The Protagonist can actively jump but not climb. -Homebase system. You will be able to customize certain rooms and buy upgrades, like a garden to grow plants for alchemy. The journalist also suspects that there will be a "map room", where you can allocate troops to open new trade routes or occupy outposts. Besides Skyhold (which is your main base), you can upgrade your other bases as well. -Animal wildlife works differently: they interact with each other (wolves hunt deer, a dragon once picked a fight with a giant) and need time to repopulate, so if you kill all the wolves in an area, you’re gonna have to be very patient -To advance the story, the inquisition has to have gained a certain strength, to unlock new regions -The environment is supposed to have a big influence on battle, like we’ve seen the inquisitor slightly stumble when the ground turns muddy after rain -(Creative Director Mike) Laidlaw says most areas are roughly three times the size of the korcari wilds from DA: O -New enemy giants. They like Darkspawn ogres and throw rocks. [Note: They're also much larger than Darkspawn Ogres.] -A dragon is especially vulnerable on the head. -There won't be mod-support for DA:I

Sunday - March 09, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Vivienne Artwork

To Vivienne, there are no impractical clothes, only impractical people. Her magnificent attire is a sign of her station, the jewel of the high court of Orlais where wealth, power, and beauty are inextricably linked.

A thousand arrows would pierce her breast before Vivienne would don beaten steel for so base an urge as protection. If one must wear armor, then have it flatter the form. Hide it beneath fine fabrics more becoming of one’s status, for steel alone will not protect you from the barbed tongues of Orlais.

To dress for comfort or purpose is a scandal—fashion and splendor are all that matter to Vivienne. Shower yourself in gold, let only the finest silks grace your skin, and wear a king’s ransom in pearls and silver upon your feet. Leave the stained tunics and rough cloaks to the commoners and their mud farms–a proper Orlesian climbs mountains in her evening gown, standing taller at the summit in her formidable high-heeled shoes.

Our new "Discover the Dragon Age" video highlights only some of the locations you can choose to visit during your adventure. Each area in the video has its own realistic ecosystem with predators, prey, factions, and opportunities to expand your Inquisition. The world's population is based on an emergent system that adjusts what you'll encounter based on how your actions tip the balance in the area. You'll see towns attacked by bandits, deer fleeing from wolves, giants feeding on bears, and countless other scenarios.

Saturday - March 01, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ GR

Game Reviews shares their opinion on whether Dragon Age: Inquisition will be another big game disaster of 2014. Please keep the comments civil.

Is Bioware to blame for the probable failure of Dragon Age Inquisition?

It’s hard not to see a recent trend with Bioware’s games. First there was the 2012 controversy over Mass Effect 3, the last twenty minutes of which some believe ruined the entire franchise, not to mention the push on Dragon Age 2, which left a lot of fans wanting.

Finally, a certain Star Wars multi-player role playing game has been a massive fail in capital letters plastered over the studio, due largely to the choice to use an archaic subscription model and thus directly compete with both Eve Online and World of Warcraft. Essentially, it’s a death sentence for an MMO game.Game sequels in general end up in failure

Game sequels in general end up in failure

It all points to one distinct problem; someone somewhere isn’t learning. The original Mass Effect was definitely not dark and gritty; it was bright, colorful, eccentric and fun. The sequels decided to throw this out the window and instead go for a dark and gritty space shooter with chest high walls and barely any RPG aspects.

Dragon Age Origins was huge; it had a depth of story and experience to rival the Elder Scrolls series and had deep character customization. Dragon Age II, by comparison, took shortcuts to finish production early and ship, a mistake that Bioware had previously avoided by giving up Knights of the Old Republic II because LucasArts was pressuring to have them rush production. The weird thing is they went on to make Mass Effect and forge a name for themselves because of that decision, but then made the same mistake with their own franchise.

Thursday - February 27, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - In-Game Voice Contest

Well I can see the replies for this news-bit already. It seems Bioware is hosting a contest for anyone interested in having their voice put into Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Here is a video and some information from the Company's Blog.

You have an interesting voice. There’s something in the timbre, the pitch, the rhythm and roll of your words that makes other people pause and take notice. You’ve got that golden throat, that silver tongue, that prized platopharyngeal arch—and we want to hear it.

Starting at 12:01 p.m. PST on February 25, 2014, we’re offering you a chance to Take Your Place in the Inquisition by lending your voice to a character in the next Dragon Age game.

All you have to do is download one of the following two scripts, upload your performance, and send the link to takeyourplace@BioWare.com, and you’ll be automatically entered to win.

Don’t worry about accents, makeup, or props—all we want is for you to perform your preferred script in your lovely, natural speaking voice. If you want to go big, by all means, be our guest. However, be aware that your entry will be judged on the quality of the voice performance and how well it matches the style of Dragon Age.

Friday - February 21, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Two Character Models

David Gaider, lead writer of the Dragon Age series, frequently answers fan questions about the franchise. He also occasionally tosses up some art or model work for the upcoming game, Dragon Age: Inquisition. Today he posted character models for main characters Cassandra and Varric.

These are what the characters will look like in-game. What you see them wearing here isn’t permanent as players will be able to customize characters’ outfits. You can see that their outfits are very detailed. It’s a bit of a shame that higher resolution pictures of Varric weren’t uploaded but we get the gist of it and it looks good.

David is very pleased with the way Cassandra looks but isn’t so sure about Varric’s hair color. I agree with him. Why is his hair so red? He was more of a blonde in Dragon Age II. Do Dwarves make a practice of dyeing their hair or something? Very odd.

Wednesday - February 05, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Recruiting PlayTesters

by Couchpotato, 07:31

BioWare is looking for playtesters for Dragon Age: Inquisition. To apply you must live in the Vancouver area, and fill out this survey.

Please complete the following survey completely and honestly to apply to participate in our Dragon Age Inquisition playtests next week. We're looking for a variety of participants, from hardcore fans to players that have never played the series!

Please share this opportunity with interested friends in the Vancouver area. All participants we select will receive an email and/or phone call with more information. Thanks for your interest.

They also released a new screenshot of one of the environments from the pre-alpha.

Tuesday - February 04, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Character Kits

by Couchpotato, 01:14

A new post on the Bioware blog shares some new Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Kits. I know many of you wont care, but some of you may enjoy this news.

When I started working for the company in August 2011, I bled BioWare blue and cosplayed… whatever color that is. For me, cosplay is the closest I can get to jumping right into the game, becoming the character, and giving back to something that has given so much to me. Luckily, I work with about a zillion people in the studios who love and appreciate fan art. After talking to cosplayers at conventions, our concept artists have even started adding more pockets to characters to hide anachronistic things like cellphones and wallets. I don’t know if you creators out there are aware of how much of your work is printed and plastered around the office or on computer/television monitors. During crunch or late nights, it’s a great reminder that video games inspire people—which, in turn, inspires our developers.

So it’s with great pleasure that I announce an initiative that has been a long time in development, a project of passion for quite a few departments within BioWare. We want to give fan artists–cosplayers, illustrators, painters, writers, cake decorators, everyone–access to detailed, descriptive, high resolution character designs before the game is released. These will be distributed so you can have them available online or print them out and keep in your garage, workshop, sewing room, or creative space to reference. Our first Character Kit is Morrigan’s ball gown, a costume that I’m particularly fond of and cosplayed for PAX Prime this past year.

Thursday - January 23, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Unigamesity

Dragon Age Inquisition will most likely come out before the end of the year but unfortunately, there are still many things to be unveiled, including the full companion list and the romance options. So far, BioWare has announced Varric and Cassandra’s return and unveiled a new female companion, Vivienne. Will they be potential romance options or will they be part of the friendship-only group? It’s a tough question but it can be easily predicted based on previous tendencies. In the last two games, parties always had eight members and four romance options, which most likely mean Inquisition will follow this trend.

Saturday - January 18, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Most Anticipated Game

I still have a few lingering concerns. For one, admitting to something and promising you will improve is worlds apart from putting out an improved game. Their past record is somewhat against them and good intentions can only get them so far. Secondly, reactive game design isn’t always a good thing. Trying to give people what you think they want rather than making what you (the developer) actually want to make isn’t always the best choice. Hopefully the two fall in line, but it is often the case that trying to please people ends up with pleasing nobody.

All this aside though I still think there is good reason to be very excited for Dragon Age: Inquisition. With the features Bioware have touted, and putting the series’ history in mind, it seems clear to me that Inquisition is going to be an interesting game. It has the potential to be something incredibly special, but it also has the potential to be a huge disaster. Whatever happens, I’m first in line with an open mind at the ready. Whether Bioware ultimately succeed or fail with this one it’s definitely going to be a game that’s going to keep people talking. Let’s just hope we find ourselves talking about how it was a glorious success rather than a glorious mess.

Saturday - January 11, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Artwork

by Couchpotato, 06:09

Gamer Headlines has some new artwork for Dragon Age: Inquisition from a few posts from Bioware on twitter.

Bioware is constantly building up hype for their upcoming powerhouse, Dragon Age Inquisition. The third installment in the Dragon Age franchise aims to right the wrongs of Dragon Age 2, and set the series back on track.

A recent twitter post highlighted some new concept art, and it looks absolutely great! From ancient elven cities, to eerie swamps and snowy peaks, it seems players will be in for a treat, at least from the perspective of diverse landscapes.

Friday - January 10, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Eurogamer

by Couchpotato, 04:45

Eurogamer has a new article about Dragon Age: Inquisition being one of the most anticipated games of 2014.

Fortunately, the signs are good. The game was delayed a year to autumn 2014 so that multiple playable races, among other things, could be added. 'That's what the core audience wanted,' BioWare said, and 'we've listened' - 'we know you didn't really like Dragon Age 2, so Inquisition will be more like Origins'. Party members in Inquisition are customisable, as is the historical state of the world. There's base building, a base-camp replacement that will make you "freak out", there's a tactical view, there are numerous varied environments, there are mounts, it's open-world - tick, check, tick, check and everyone should be happy.

Inquisition should also finally bring the Dragon Age series onto a visual par with the stunning sci-fi Mass Effect series, now DICE's capable Frostbite 3 engine underpins the action - and the video evidence we've seen so far backs this up. Whether developing the game for five platforms - PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360 - simultaneously causes problems, we'll have to wait and see.

All of that wrapped in the kind of emotional adventure BioWare is famed for. It will be good, but can it be great?

Tuesday - January 07, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ OPSM

Dragon Age 2 was a misstep for Bioware, a fun but over-economical role-player let down by a shortage of areas and some weak-kneed ‘player choices’. The developer’s had plenty on its plate since then, between Mass Effect 3 and the departure of co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, meaning the likes of Dragon’s Dogma and The Witcher 3 have stolen the limelight. Inquisition now wants to get even. It does it by taking things from the top.

Monday - January 06, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Forbes

by Couchpotato, 04:34

Forbes has a new article for Dragon Age: Inquisition were they call the game a possible video game catastrophe for 2014. Now do you agree with him, or is he wrong?

I’m actually really excited for Inquisition. Everything I’ve seen about the game so far looks great. Multiple playable races are back, as is an optional top-down tactical view. The game looks gorgeous, and promises even more customization options than Origins. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s been in development for quite a while already, so we don’t have to worry about this being a rush job like Dragon Age 2.

All the hopeful signs point to a great single-player RPG; but there’s plenty of reasons to worry that this will not be the case, if only because of BioWare’s recent problems at bat.

Of course, for BioWare to salvage its good name and restore its brand, Inquisition needs to be a great game. It must be head and shoulders above anything they’ve done in years, and stand up to the competition—The Witcher 3 in particular. EA and BioWare need to hit this one out of the park. They simply can’t afford another disaster.

Friday - January 03, 2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ OXM

OXM interviews Bioware about the world, combat, classes, and more for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Here is a small preview of the four page interview.

This has been delayed to a late 2014 release. You've said that you'll spend the extra time adding Qunari to the playable races. How else are you making use of that time?

That's a good question. I think we'll just do more of what we were doing originally - more space, more content. The scope of what you can give to the player is really important in terms of how much they can enjoy and get into the world, so we'll be able to do more of that with the time that we have. But the other thing you use time like this for in development is just to hone and polish so much more.

Taking something from 90 to 95 per cent is just incredibly difficult and it requires a lot of time and focus and energy to do it. So this extra time will allow us to do even more of that than we would have previously, along with bringing in playable races. And playable races have broad-reaching impact on game development. It fuses and ripples along the entire story and all the side bits and pieces as well, with recordings and such as well. It's crazy. So that was a pretty big shift, especially to bring in a fourth one as well with the Qunari.

I've heard that BioWare has hired multiplayer designers for Inquisition. Do you have anything to declare on that front?

I have no idea at all in terms of hiring, but you know, the Mass Effect multiplayer stuff is really good, so we've certainly looked at options like that, but we haven't decided on anything in terms of multiplayer at this point.

It's presumably harder to make a multiplayer RPG than a multiplayer shooter, given that you've got to account for much more in the way of player customisation.

Shooters are really easy to make - well, not really easy to make, I shouldn't say that! But certainly there's a known quantity about what you want to try and create.

Thursday - December 19, 2013

Mark Darrah has updated the Bioware blog with news about DA: Inquisition. Bioware has been working on a holiday build for this game; a holiday build is defined as this:

Effectively, they are builds we create around the holiday break that are packaged in a way that allows the team, and other parts of BioWare, to play the game in as complete of a state as we can get it. In this case, our Holiday build is focused on these areas: 1. The main storyline completely playable from beginning to end: This allows the story to be experienced in an interactive state, and lets us get pacing and spacing right. 2. All of the gameplay systems working together: This means that you can experience the game as it is intended to be experienced, with each feature feeding into another.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Unigamesity

Now do you agree with them? Or do you want to see something different? Remember to keep on topic, and don't troll please.

Dragon Age Inquisition will come out next year and as part of next-gen, it will surely bring many surprises. Opposing the previous two games, solely dedicated to role-playing, Inquisition will introduce a new castle feature, where players will be able to manage their armies. This system can be quite ambiguous since it could be an innovation to improve role-playing, as it could be the ascendance of another genre. Nothing is for certain now but in the end, it’s all in the hands of BioWare. However, BioWare is a game developer, whose mission is to satisfy players. So, what are players looking forward in Dragon Age Inquisition?

Monday - November 18, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Unigamesity

by Couchpotato, 01:09

Unigamesity posted another article for Dragon Age: Inquisition about Morrigan , and ponders will she be a hero or villain in the next game.

Morrigan was one of the main characters in Dragon Age Origins and she is known for being cold, apathetic and egocentric. She is a witch of the wilds just like her supposed mother, Flemeth, and she was raised far from civilization. Due to the lack of interaction and communication with other human beings, Morrigan is not able to fully empathize with most human-like actions and decisions. During Origins, Morrigan was many times the hero and the villain simultaneous, since she never offered anything without any sort of gain. Many things have happened since Morrigan was last seen in the Witch Hunt DLC and the question is: What kind of character will Morrigan be in Inquisition? Will she keep her old posture of seeking any form of profit through her actions? Or perhaps, she has changed and evolved into something else? In this article, I’ll be discussing what will probably happen with this character.

Wednesday - November 06, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ Unigamesity

by Couchpotato, 00:54

Unigamesity is back with another article about Dragon Age: Inquisition talking about the returning characters that Bioware might bring back.

As for now, it’s too hard to predict who may or may not come back in Inquisition, since basically anyone could come back. However, when it comes to party members, I think that BioWare won’t include any more old characters because it can become strange to interact with characters that had previous relations with the players already, as Perry stated: “I think that because we have a different protagonist sometimes it came be perceived as weird if party members return.”

On the other hand, I believe that Inquisition will feature several if not many old characters, not as party members as obvious, but they’ll most likely come back. The world of Thedas is at war, the blight may be gone but the mages’ threat has become extremely dangerous with all the abominations destroying everything on their path and as so, everyone must unite to fight as one. Is there any better candidates for this task than the old DA party members? They’ve taken part in wars already, they’re very skilled and the most important, they have proved their loyalty before. Even though this would make perfect sense, I doubt it will happen, but who knows, BioWare is full of surprises and a great example of this is the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Thursday - October 31, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - 2015 Release?

Well according to a recent earnings release EA may be pushing back the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition to 2015.

EA has cast doubt over Dragon Age: Inquisition's autumn 2014 release date, suggesting that though a release next year is "most likely", there's a possibility it could slip.

"We were highly conscious of the fact that, if Battlefield is as successful as we believe it'll be, that that sets ourselves up for a challenge next year," said EA CFO Blake Jorgensen during the firm's Q2 2014 financial call last night. "But remember, we're introducing NBA this year. We're introducing UFC next year. We have Sims next year, we would most likely, possibly have Dragon Age next year."

Dragon Age: Inquisition (previously known as Dragon Age 3) has already seen a major delay, having been previously due to launch this autumn. It is currently expected to launch on current-gen consoles, PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 late next year.

However, Jorgensen's comments suggest the firm may not be 100 per cent confident in the revised release date.

EA will reveal "more about our ultimate revenue and plans and title plans when we give guidance later in the year," Jorgensen adds.

Tuesday - October 15, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ Gamerzines

by Couchpotato, 00:52

Gamerzines interviews Cinematic Director Jonathan Perry about how BioWare’s storytelling process has evolved. This is the interview that most sites are using for sensationalist headlines. So give it a look without all the bias.

How does the cutscene camera system actually work? In Mass Effect, the camera cycled through pre-defined templates. Will that system be used in Inquisition or will you adopt a more hands-on approach?

It’s a bit of both because of the scale of the games and how many conversations we have to do. In our previous games we had around 10,000 lines of dialogue and around 30 hours worth of custom cinematic content. A lot of games have maybe 30 minutes to a couple of hours, so we can’t necessarily hand touch everything or build everything from scratch.

We have what we call stages which are essentially a collection of co-ordinates where you can say, ‘Okay, in this situation where one guy talks to a party of three other guys, here is where they can stand’. We give them poses and emotions and really generate a performance based on those inputs. Early in production we can start to play through that dialogue to see that people are talking and doing things, which allows us to evaluate the narrative and make rewrites and changes where needed. Once we’re at that playable state we can then go in and start to customise a performance.

For some of the scenes, that aren’t as important as others, we might leave the default camera switching back and forth and in other ones we’ll go in and hand tweak; move the camera around, move the characters around etc. You’ll see a spectrum of different quality conversations or scenes with more action in them than others.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the first titles to use DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine. What’s that like?

One of the things I’m excited about with Dragon Age: Inquisition is that we have all new tech allowing us to build a lot more reactive systems. So instead of just switching back and forth between these over the shoulder cameras, still using these stages, we can create cameras that are intelligent. They can react to what’s going on in scene, so if you’re really upsetting somebody or the relationship is taking a turn for the worse we can start to drop the camera down or pitch it up, so it feels a bit more hostile, or if you’re making all the right moves in that romance conversation, flirting back and forth, we can have the camera push in. I think it’s really cool that we have an intelligent camera at this point, so it opens up a lot more opportunities to make these scenes feel unique. We might experience the same lines, but the framing of the characters in the shot might be completely different based on what we’re doing. Previously when a character said a line they would always have the same emotion, but now we have systems depending on how you’ve been treating that person. They could say the same line, but have a stern look or a happy look based on how the conversation is going or what has come before that.

In it, he explains that the romance scenes will be like the ones in Mass Effect:

"I think Mass Effect's scenes were done really well and I think we will take Inquisition's scenes in that direction," Perry told GamerZines. "You might have a nude character but they are framed in such a way that parts of them are in shadow, or having characters in various states of undress."

Interestingly, Perry also said this:

Perry said creating sex scenes that feel genuine and believable will be "incredibly expensive in terms of animation fidelity."

Saturday - October 12, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Bioware Survey

There are fairly basic questions about what platforms you own and what systems you played the last two Dragon Age games on, as well as queries on which BioWare games you’ve played and what your preferred difficulty settings are… and then they get into the meat of it with questions about how important you find various aspects in the Dragon Age games, what classes you preferred, how you composed your party, etc.

And yes, in the “level of importance” bit, players are asked if “Intimate Relationships and Romance” are Not Important, Somewhat Important, Very Important, or Extremely Important. I remain somewhat surprised that BioWare haven’t released an iOS dating game tie-in, yet.

From there we’re onto questions about the combat. Do you like pausing battles? Do you like zoomed out, overhead views? Do you like setting up custom tactics for your party members? I hope you do, because I’d much prefer Dragon Age: Inquisition to take after Dragon Age: Origins than Dragon Age II. Please tell BioWare this.

Wednesday - October 09, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ EDGE

by Couchpotato, 00:58

EDGE has posted a new preview of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and saying Bioware is returning to it's origins.

Fantasy worlds can often feel like static, sterile (if gaudily themed) arenas for numbers-based contact, so this physicality is intriguing, and should dovetail effectively with the tactical view, which gives players time to properly scrutinise the battlefield.

At one point a battle is swiftly ended when the player orders a party member to send a jolt of icy magic into the foundations of the rickety structure some archers are perched on.

It’s a return to the potential of the first game, then, with the tech to realise it, a strong theme of leadership, and a commitment to showing the consequences of choices. With the battle done, and the Inquisition keep saved, we head wearily back to the village of Crestwood, only to find nothing but corpses and scorched earth when we get there.

Saturday - October 05, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ PC Gamer

by Couchpotato, 00:39

PC Gamer has a new preview of Dragon Age: Inquisition about returning characters, and open world fortresses

Dragon Age has never had the same sense of direction as Mass Effect. Its sci-fi stablemate was a point-to-point race through a single narrative, escalating in scale as success translated into publisher support. Dragon Age: Origins was, in many ways, the last game from pre-EA BioWare, an oldschool fantasy RPG that grew organically over a protracted development period. Its popularity seemed to catch the studio’s new publisher off-guard, leading to a sequel that – while it retained much of its predecessor’s soul – lost all of its scope.

“We have a much greater opportunity in terms of time on this one than we did on DAII,” says producer Cameron Lee, who joined BioWare from Dead Space developers Visceral Games in early 2012. “We also have the opportunity with the engine change to rebuild everything from the ground up. We’re trying to bring across the same feel, the same vibe, and the same sort of storytelling, but DAII was more of a framed narrative – Inquisition is definitely Origins-style. Much bigger.”

‘Origins-style’ scope doesn’t mean oldschool, however: what I’ve seen of Inquisition indicates a modern game that wears its influences – and ambitions – openly. The first area I’m shown is an open-world take on Ferelden, an expanse of fields and frosty mountainsides that suggests that the success of Skyrim hasn’t gone unnoticed. It’s still Dragon Age, however, and the party-of-four system and adjustable third-person perspective all reflect that. Combat is broadly similar to Dragon Age II, but the pause interface has been improved to allow for more fluid issuing of orders before time resumes. You’ll still be able to program friendly AI behaviour, but this wasn’t shown.

Saturday - September 28, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview with Jonathan Perry @ Xbox360

With these Fade tears popping up throughout the world, will closing them operate like they did in previous the Dragon Age games in which you have to actually enter the Fade and maybe close them from within?

I can't comment too much on that, because it touches on a little bit of the story. But one of the goals as The Inquisitor is to go and try to close these tears and seal them off, so there aren't all these demons spewing out into the world. The huge Fade tear in the sky and the Fade tears in the world, they certainly play a big part in the narrative of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

A quote about the destructible environments, you can rebuild things as well:

One of the things that we didn't really talk about during the gameplay demo, was the opposite of destroying things: building things. There will be abilities that allow you to [rebuild scenery]. If you find a place you can't quite get up to, and you can find a shattered steps or a ladder, you'll be able to reconstruct them and gain access to that area you couldn't otherwise get to before. It's us thinking strategically about how we want you to be able to modify the environment to your advantage.

A quote on how romance works in DA:Inquisiton:

Finally, how will romancing work in the game?

Is it the same kind of deal as previous BioWare games, or can anyone romance anyone? I wouldn't say that anyone can romance anyone, but there will certainly be characters who fancy a certain type of person more than another. We haven't really been able to comment on how many of your followers will be 'romance-able' or who will be 'romance-able', but we do have a whole lot of interesting combinations. Romance is a really important part of our storytelling, and we really want to give the player a lot of options there.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ Only SP

by Couchpotato, 00:54

Only SP has a new preview of Dragon Age: Inquisition calling ita step in the right direction for fantasy RPGs.

Bioware is describing their main storyline as a campaign, which to me has a much different meaning than calling it a “main quest” etc. To me that means it’s not going to be another Skyrim where the narrative is shallow and uninteresting due to having to stuff the world with so much filler content. Some of the sidequests were more exciting in Skyrim than the main quest, to be completely honest. What Bioware seems to be doing with Inquisition is making the open world part of the game an accessory to the main storyline, and as with other open world RPG’s the main idea of the game is for the player to explore and create their own path. Inquisition allows you create your own path through the choices you make, but unlike most open world games, since the narrative drives the game forward these choices have a much bigger impact than deciding against doing a fetch quest for a random NPC in an open world.

Having the player feel like they’re playing a linear campaign in an open world would seemingly give the player the best of both worlds. You get a game with a directed narrative that is compelling and allows the player to take breaks when needed, but also drives them to finish the story. To me, having an open world feel like doing a bunch of different quests to get to one final goal is just tedious and uninteresting.

If Bioware can create a campaign in an open world setting similar to the likes of The Witcher 2, they may make a fan out of me yet.

Thursday - September 26, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ PixlBit

Dragon Age has admittedly been my least favorite Bioware series since their shift to consoles. Not that it's a bad series (well, Origins was great at least), just that I think Knights of the Old Republic delivered a similar experience while doing a much better job in a more interesting world. That said, I am still very excited for Dragon Age 3, and am really liking that Bioware is taking their time and trying to make it a really big game. So here's what I want from the game.

Now, I'm not going to go into the super obvious stuff. Things like Bioware delivering on the open world, an improved console interface without sacrificing depth (since I want the PS4 version), and getting rid of the awesome button. These are more personal things I want that don't come up quite as often.

Tuesday - September 17, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ TheGameHeadz

by Couchpotato, 01:07

TheGameHeadz has posted a new preview of Dragon Age: Inquisition asking,"What’s so Unique About the Long Questioning?"

An inquisition is defined as “a judicial or official inquiry or examination usually before a jury.” In the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition, the player's character, appropriately deemed the Inquisitor, will be conducting investigations on behalf of the organization. The objective is to discover who is responsible for the event that ripped several holes in the sky that lead to the Fade, letting in demons and other unsavory creatures. The gameplay appears much larger in scale than the previous two games, showing that BioWare is employing their usual series magic to prevent Dragon Age from growing stagnant.

It's difficult to keep RPG series fresh while maintaining fan approval, just ask Square Enix. Each new Final Fantasy game garners new and vehement criticism from fans for the changes they make to the core gameplay. Final Fantasy XII was a particular subject of disapproval thanks to Square Enix throwing out the random encounter mechanic. Fortunately for Dragon Age fans, BioWare has a long history with RPG series. The Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Mass Effect series all improved under BioWare's capable development team, and I expect no less from Dragon Age. The changes announced for Dragon Age: Inquisition take the series in a new direction without forgetting its roots.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ RPS

RPS: You can choose your race and your sex again in this one. I assume that’ll have a pretty major impact on what you see and don’t see this time around? You previously noted that the year-long delay allowed you to make some pretty big changes on this front.

Laidlaw: To some degree. Our big goal is that there’s some sort of significant impact to making that choice. I don’t think I want to spend the entire game being called a knife-ear because I chose an elf, over and over again. At that point it just becomes background noise. But at least at one or two points in the game, I want it to rear up and say, “So you chose elf! Cool! Let’s deal with that.” That, to me, is a very intriguing element of the game and it always has been.

RPS: Yeah. It’s something that genres like fantasy or sci-fi are pretty well-equipped to discuss, because you can take a fairly sticky subject and abstract it and see the effects of it. There was a lot of stuff dealing with race in DA 2. Is that still a big theme, a big thread in the game?

Laidlaw: It always has been. Again, to some degree, you being an Inquisitor overrides some of the race stuff. But yeah, the elves are still considered lower-class citizens. The dwarves are still this kind of alien culture. And if you’re on the surface, by nature you’re an outcast from the real dwarven culture, as far as they’re concerned. They have this weird internal racism.

And then on top of that, Qunari bring in a really interesting new wrinkle, in that they’re kind of the barbarian invader race. They’re a highly advanced barbarian invader race from across the sea that everyone’s terrified of, because at one poine they tried to conquer the whole darn place. They fought to a standstill and they never really were pushed back at all. So suddenly one of them is Inquisitor. It poses some interesting challenges.

RPS: You’ve mentioned that romances are going to break outside the box of traditional “BioWare romances.” They’ve been described as more “event-based.” What does that mean? Do you reach this point in the game/romance and this thing happens, next point, this thing happens?

Laidlaw: No, no, I wouldn’t say so. It’s just attempting to get away from the idea of, “Oh, +10, and here’s a gift, +5.” Getting away from that kind of raw, mechanical, insert happiness event kind of stuff. So event-based is more just a general approach.

Thursday - September 12, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ RPS

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a new interview for Dragon Age: Inquisition that talks about combat, exploration, and choices.

RPS: You put a lot of emphasis on the scope of choices, as well. The ability to “change the world” and whatnot.

Laidlaw: Yeah. The physicality of the changes is something I’m pretty jazzed about. I think it’s neat to… It’s something we’ve never tackled before, and I think it’s very cool. It’s something the engine actually opened up as an opportunity for us.

RPS: You were discussing all the potential repercussions for choices. You were saying that it’s very possible for content to be blocked off if you make certain choices.

Laidlaw: Absolutely.

RPS: How much of the game functions that way? If a player goes through and only plays once, roughly how much will they… I don’t want to say “miss out on,” but the nature of choice being what it is, making a real impactful choice, how much could that close off?

Laidlaw: I couldn’t say at this point. I think that’s something we need to be closer to final to lock down. But our goal is that it’s a significant amount, a fifth or a quarter or so, that’s showing some degree of exclusivity. And then you can layer on top of that a certain amount of stuff that you probably just won’t find. “Oh, you didn’t go east there. Wow. Well, you missed out on the big dragon carcass or what have you.” That kind of stuff is good.

I think that our goal, more than worrying about percentages, is that when I present a choice, or when my team presents a choice, to a player, our goal with Inquisition is that we honor that choice. This goes all the way to, “What are you importing into the world?” If it’s something that we’re going to tackle at all, I want it to be significantly different.

Similarly, if you make a choice where it’s, “Well, you’re going to have to side with one of these two groups,” or “Either that guy’s gonna die or that guy’s gonna die,” or anything that’s on that level, I would hate for a character to just say “Thanks!” and you’re done. Instead, we want it to have more depth than that. More than worrying about the numbers, it’s about a philosophy. It’s something we’re really working really hard on, to make sure that we either honor the choice or get rid of it. Sometimes you simply have to, because the ramifications are too big. But more often than not it’s just finding a good and interesting and satisfying way to say, “Yeah, that matters. I see how.”

Wednesday - September 11, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ OXM

by Couchpotato, 01:34

OXM writes about five ways BioWare's series has changed for the better in this new preview for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

I used to be quite worried about Dragon Age: Inquisition - right up until around about, oh, two weeks ago. With naught but a handful of concept artworks, some oddly hazy, dreary screens and an enigmatic trailer to its name, BioWare's latest effort seemed rather lacking in oomph alongside the ruggedly handsome Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in particular.

I'm still a bit worried about Inquisition, it must be said. That gameplay reveal has laid a fair few unquiet spectres to rest, but the visuals can't hold a candle to CD Projekt's efforts. Still, what I've seen suggests that the new Dragon Age has what it takes to banish the divisive Dragon Age 2 from memory, at the very least. You've hopefully read our first look preview - here are five highlights I feel deserve a little more, er, highlighting.

Sunday - September 08, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview Roundup #4

I went into PAX worried about the prospects of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I've come out impressed with what Bioware can do when they have the time and resources to craft a great RPG. Now, not only am I looking forward to next-gen Dragon Age, but I'm also supremely psyched about Bioware carrying some of this knowledge into the Mass Effectseries. Some may have felt that the studio lost its way, but I'm hoping Dragon Age: Inquisition is the start of Bioware taking back its RPG crown.

Dragon Age: Inquisition will be taking a far more tactical approach to combat that its predecessors did. It will be more focus on preparation, planning, and creating an effective team. You will have to think ahead of fights in order to ensure you come out on top of combat encounters. Combat in general will be slowed down from the more action-oriented gameplay of Dragon Age 2. While it won’t be quite as slow as the combat in the original game, you will still have time to pause and think about situations before taking action.

While many of the changes made in Dragon Age 2 felt like cutbacks rather than refinements to Origins’ core concepts, Dragon Age: Inquisition looks to be building on the mechanics of both. It will have stiff competition from the likes of The Witcher 3 when both games launch next year but that just makes it all the more exciting a time to be a fan of the RPG.

Saturday - September 07, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ CVG

by Couchpotato, 01:26

CVG has a new preview among the many others released in the last two weeks. The point of their preview is to say Dragon Age Inquisition goes after Skyrim.

After Mass Effect 3 Ending-gate, Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play flip flop, and a poorly received Dragon Age 2, 2013's Bioware is a very different beast. But if the last few years have charted a dip for the studio, then Dragon Age: Inquisition is a roaring return to form.

With a development cycle that, by the time of Inquisition's Autumn 2014 release on both current-gen and next-gen systems, will double that of 2011's last instalment, the studio has learned the benefits of taking its time. Inquisition's heart still beats to Bioware's pulse, based around intelligent player choice, dialogue trees and party systems, but the intervening years have seen drastic change.

"It's an opportunity with the generation change, as well as the new engine change, to revitalize things," says Cameron Lee, producer on Inquisition. "We've rebuilt everything from the ground up. It's all re-written, recreated content."

Thursday - September 05, 2013

RPGWatch Feature: Dragon Age Inquisition Interview

by Myrthos, 01:35

While at Gamescom I had the opportunity to talk with Dragon Age: Inquisition Producer Melanie Faulknor and Cinematic Director Jonathan Perry about combat, some of the RPG elements of the game and the new engine they are using.

My first interest was the combat in Dragon Age: Inquistion and what it would be like compared to its predecessors. Jonathan Perry (JP) started out with saying that they received a lot of feedback on combat and how it changed from Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age 2. They are taking all this feedback while developing Dragon Age: Inquisition to define what combat will be like in the game. Overall Dragon Age: Inquisition will be much more focused on tactical combat. Using your party members' unique abilities, you can get more strategic about how you are using your party in combat. For this purpose you can use what JP named Pause and Play (which sounds as Real-Time-with-Pause) to position your party members and give them commands for what they will use as attack or defense action once you continue to play, thus making full use of your party's abilities. This should accommodate the more strategic players, but Dragon Age: Inquisition will also keep the very fast reactive combat from Dragon Age 2 as they feel it worked very well for a lot of players too. These two styles will be meshed so you can decide for yourself which combat style you want to use.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ StrategyInformer

StrategyInformer has a short preview along with a few more videos for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

BioWare Edmonton is developing Dragon Age: Inquisition and producer Cameron Lee isn't shying away from promoting what a "much more immersive world" we're in for thanks to 'gen four' hardware.

It's a richer environment thanks to all the extra trimmings they can do, like lush foliage, which is a "huge" visual difference from current platforms. PCs will be 'melting faces' in late 2014.

This 'gen four' refers to 'generation four' of the current PlayStation console timeline. EA don't really think it’s worth counting before the days of the PSone, cycle-wise.

"On gen four you'll see far better graphics and, more importantly, a much more immersive world," declared Lee.

"It's a lot richer, and there's more depth to it. We can put more things on screen. There are more NPCs. There is more life to the world. That, while a subtle thing, really does over time build up into quite a strong connection to the game compared to the other gen three platforms." Aired footage of Inquisition certainly shows a much improved world

Wednesday - September 04, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Podcast & Interview

To conclude our month of exclusive Dragon Age: Inquisition coverage, we asked our readers to submit all of their questions about the game. They responded in full force, and we put those questions to creative director Mike Laidlaw in this special edition podcast.

We touch on a wide range of topics, and Laidlaw clarified some of the big reveals from the last week, including the Keep and the confirmation of the Qunari as a playable race.

And to finish the news-bit DragonAgeSaga interviewed the Cinematic DirectorJonathan Perry.

I have some questions about the characters and the story, lots of people would like to know what will become of all the companions and characters in DAI, the old companions, and other characters like Cullen, Connor the little boy in Redcliff…

The choices that players have made in Dragon Age Origins and DA2, are really importants to the players and really importants to us. We do want to react to those choices that you've made, so we'll react to them in Dragon Age Inquisition. We certainly pay attention to who the fans' love when it comes to the followers, and as much as possible we try to bring them back. We've already shown that Varric's back, Cassandra's back, there will be many more returning characters but unfortunately we can't confirm which one those are yet, we do hope to provide you more informations soon.

Can you tell us what happens to Hawke and the Warden ?

Oh, the Warden could be dead…We certainly, again, want to react to those decisions that you've made and how they shaped the world of Thedas. We had planned an additionnal DLC for DA2. Many fans felt like because we shifted our attention to DAI, that we left Hawke's story unresolved so that's something we're aware of and I think we will be looking for a way to let the player know what became of Hawke and the warden.

Morrigan's child must be grown up by now, and we saw her at the trailer at E3, will we see her child too ?My Warden's was the father so I really would like to know!

Unfortunately I can't answer, it's something people have been really curious about, it's something that could possibly come up, but we can't confirm any details.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview Roundup #3

There’s a big glowing hole in the sky and terribly evil things keep falling out of it. Demons, ghosts, rude lyrics, all manner of insane badness is tumbling out of an inter-dimensional sky-fanny and it’s up to you, the leader of the Inquisition, to find out why it’s happening and put a stop to it. This is Dragon Age: Inquisition, BioWare’s second shot at giving Dragon Age: Origins the sequel it deserves, one that draws on both the freshly Skyrim and Witcher-soaked influences of a recently rejuvenated fantasy RPG genre, as well as building on its own tactically minded combat roots. This is a next-gen Dragon Age that’s grown up, learned its lessons and added a horse.

During a panel held yesterday at PAX Prime, Dragon Age: Inquisition Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw dropped a very interesting statement on how the game will perform on different platforms, caught on film by Youtube user yaypony.

While the fact that the Xbox 360 version won’t look as good as the PC version or the next generation console versions was to be expected, it’s interesting to see it defined inferior to the PS3 version as well.

There’s the slight possibility that the addition of “or the PS3″ at the end of the sentence meant to bunch it with the Xbox 360, meaning that both Xbox 360 and PS3 will look inferior to PC and the next generation consoles, but considering the wording and the fact that Laidlaw continues to talk in singular form makes it quite unlikely.

Tuesday - September 03, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview Roundup #2

The thought that kept coming to mind while watching the closed-door, hands-off, developer-played demo of Dragon Age: Inquisition at PAX Prime 2013, is that BioWare seems to have taken the lessons of 2011 and 2012 to heart.

For all the tweaks and changes to the formula shown during the demo, the overall feeling I got was of a company trying to recapture to the melding of an epic, branching story with the tight, tactical combat that made the first Dragon Age game so refreshing.

BioWare are obviously trying to give existing fans exactly what they want (you can also play as the Qunari race now, although there’s no evidence of that in the demo) but so far Dragon Age: Inquisition is looking interesting enough to satisfying both old players and new.

BioWare obviously broke the mould for multiplayer in RPGs with Mass Effect 3, whose Galaxy at War component integrates with single player, and has attracted a sizeable following. "The Mass Effect multiplayer stuff was really good, so we've certainly looked at options like that," Lee told me. "But we haven't decided on anything in terms of multiplayer at this point.

There was something that went unsaid throughout the whole of the presentation. The name of a game that you’d imagine would be quite relevant. “Dragon Age II”. For some reason it didn’t come up. While BioWare have never openly acknowledged that it was an expansion pack stretched breakingly thin to be a disappointing sequel, there was no subtlety about Inquisition being presented as the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. Set many years later, and casting you as a brand new character, they promised it would share some characters, but not many, and continue some stories, but not many. Instead the pitch here appeared to be one of a mostly wholly new tale to be told in the setting they spent ten years crafting.

I am told on a regular basis not to get my hopes up for this new Dragon Age entry. BioWare, people say, simply can’t be trusted to come through anymore. Maybe that’s true, but my hopes are high no matter. Everything I’ve seen lately about this game looks terrific, ambitious, and gorgeous.

That being said…I’m wary of buzzwords. I’m wary of over-promises and big ambition from a studio who obviously has the talent but doesn’t always deliver. I’m wary, but optimistic. Many of the right ideas seem to be at play here, and the developers seem to have both the time and resources and the right ideas to make a good game and maybe even a great one.

BioWare wants to replace the claustrophobic basements and tunnels of Dragon Age II with a sprawling sandbox designed to let players create their own stories. The demo BioWare brought to Seattle for PAX showcased a couple different environments: the lush hills of Crestwood and the arid badlands of the Deep Desert. Crestwood alone, according to BioWare, is bigger than all of Dragon Age II while still "not even close" to being the biggest environment in Inquisition.

I learned so much about this game that it's impossible to mention it all, but it's clear BioWare has doubled down on re-inventing the epic fantasy RPG genre. I saw echoes of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate and even Civilization, but Inquisition isn't a clear progression from any genre. Dragon Age: Inquisition will be in a category all by itself when it comes out in the Fall of 2014.

BioWare seem to be really proud of their dragons. There’ll be a fixed number of these in the game, and it sounds like they’ll act as massive boss fights at the culmination of certain areas. They seem a little bit clumsy – they have a tendency to fly leg-first through pieces of tactically scattered ancient ruin, sending bricks and debris in their wake – but it’s nonetheless very impressive. The brief segment we were shown reminded me of the original CGI trailer for Origins, where a dragon battle was a long, mobile, multi-stage affair. Here’s hoping that some of that energy makes it into the actual game this time. In any case, expect to be shown BioWare’s impressive dragon over and over again in the long year before release.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interviews

One of things I noticed with tactics in the live pre-alpha gameplay demo we saw is that when going up the stairs, you just see the Conjurer enemy at the start, but switching to tactics you can see everything up there. Is there going to be a fog of war style mechanic implemented so you still have to deal with the unknown?

“Yeah, there will be something. We’re still working on the details about that view mode but we obviously don’t just want the player to bring up the tactical camera mode and be able to see everything. But I’ll tell you what you can do is there are some really cool times when it’s raining and stuff like that, when you pull tactical cam everything in the world freezes. So it’s kind of like this sort of Matrix moment where you can spin around like the raindrops and stuff like that. It’s pretty badass. But we’ll work out something about how you use the camera and how far you can go.”

What can you tell us about the new party members in Dragon Age Inquisition? Varric has come back which I am ecstatic about!

“Did you notice his chest hair? It’s so good! It’s so hot, that chest hair! Varric is back which is awesome and Cassandra which you would have seen as well, from Dragon Age II and some of the novels. Vivienne is the new character and she’s really cool. She’s like an ex-First Enchanter from one of the circles. Vivienne’s personality is really interesting and I think that there’s going to be some interesting conflicts between her and some of the other characters that you’re going to meet along the way. They’re the ones that we’ve announced so far, unfortunately I can’t talk about the other ones. We have mentioned that Morrigan is back, as you know, so she’s not a party member but she plays a major role in the game. I’d be very interested to hear some conversations between Vivienne and Morrigan.”

Whenever you're making a choice that has a direct action...that the paraphrase is abselutely clear.

You can turn this feature on and off.

At about 4.45 minute in the video Bioware shows a decision made by the Inquisitor that will and do have a consquence later, not only it seemns storywise, but also on how your companions feel about you. At about 7:00 minutes in the video, the Inquisitor enters a cave. He is in a hurry, so he has no time to stop and enjoy the cave.

Mike Laidlaw at 9.50 minutes in the video confirms:

"...after a fight your health does not automatically recover. Once you've received your wounds, they stick around for quite some time. Until your return to your home or rested at camp...."

At about 12:50 Mark Darrak talks about how the consequences for your actions do have implicatations:

"content will be unlocked, you'll get access to things you wouldn't otherwise get."

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ TheAverageGamer

by Couchpotato, 02:40

TheAverageGamer has a new video interview with Producer Cameron Lee, and Cinematics Director Jonathan. Topics include Keeps, Influence and Combat.

We talked to Cameron Lee and Jonathan Perry from the team behind Dragon Age Inquistion. Hear their thoughts on the dragons, how the new camera works in combat and what you'll be able to do once you take over a keep.

The developer has also announced the RPG's fourth playable race: the Qunari.

In Inquisition the tactical view, available on all platforms, works as it did in Origins. You're able to pause combat and zoom out to a top-down perspective, issuing party members movement, ability and attack orders. The tactical view, which was ditched for the heavily-criticised Dragon Age 2, lets players micro-manage combat, enhancing the strategic element of encounters.

Eurogamer saw this in action during a recent preview event in London, where BioWare developers demoed a pre-alpha version of the game running on a high-end PC. You can see snippets of gameplay in the video below.

A quote from the Kotaku article about what happens in Crestwood - a city under attack:

In hands-off demos, you the Kotaku reporter don't get to decide which action the Inquisitor takes. They choose for you: abandon Crestwood and send your troops back to the keep to regroup. This pisses off Varric, one of your dwarf companions (returning from DAII). It leads to a lot of snarky comments, and you get mad at BioWare for making what seems to be a pretty bad choice

There's apparently a prompt

that will appear above each choice when you make a major decision. It won't tell you what will happen as a result of your choice, but it will clarify what that option does, so you don't wind up accidentally beheading someone when you just wanted to threaten to cut off his legs, or something.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Qunari as a Playable Race - Tactical Camera Will Be Back

Mark Darrah, Executive Producer confirms Quanari as playable race, also female Qunari will be shown at PAX. Mark Darrah also mentions that the tactical camera is back for not only for the PC, but also for Xbox and PS3. You also get to some interesting gameplay and scenes from the game.

They are hunters, first and foremost. "Our dragons are basically apex predators," Laidlaw says. "They are about as intelligent a very smart dog. We've compared them to the mabari [hounds]."

A quote on how to fight dragon in - ehm - DA: Inquisition:

"You can individually target their limbs, and they react to the damage to a leg versus another one," says Laidlaw. "I think that helps ground the encounter a lot more. If you need to get in close to the legs, we open up a whole new realm of counter-moves. He can take a swipe at where you likely are, which feels more like what a real beast would do. It grounds the encounter, and keeps it very physical."

you'll be able to customize as much or as little about the world of Thedas as you wish. Then you'll be able to import your saved world state into DAI at the start of a new game. Have you lost or corrupted your save files? No problem - remake your world state on the Keep, and preserve it for the future. For those folks new to the Dragon Age franchise, the Keep will serve as a great way to understand the people, places, and events that shaped the world leading up to DAI.

Bioware is looking into a:

cloud-based solution. Moving to the cloud allows players to take their unique world state into any platform (present or future) and even other media. For existing fans, an advantage of being in the cloud is that (if you are ok with spoilers) you can fully explore what-if scenarios, and become aware of events and consequences in our past games that you may not have known were possible. You can then fire up the previous games and go exploring for those moments.

Also, import bugs can be fixed uses the Dragon Age Keep:

[....] some current save imports are buggy, which is our fault, and something we're committed to fixing. Permanently. The Keep allows us to do just that. Users of the Keep won't have to suffer with these types of logic inconsistencies any longer.

"You need to make sure they're a real character and a person first." Once BioWare forms the history and motivations, the writers sit down to address how many romance options they need, and begin dissecting their characters.

Bioware makes sure they've covered relationships

from every angle. This forces the team to look beyond just the premise and into what implications it presents. "Are there issues of feminism or other problematic elements? What are we saying about this character we aren't intending to?" Gaider says. "We have to think about all those issues first and try to distill it down into a set of stories that we want to tell and feel good about telling."

According to Luke Kristjanson

"The player has to meet us halfway," Kristjanson says. "If they're going on an adventure with a love interest in the story, again that entire adventure is part of their romance, whether we label it romance or not."

Monday - August 26, 2013

Today's update from Game Informer on Dragon Age: Inquisition is a video roundtable discussion on Bioware's new IPs, the chance of a new Jade Empire and what Bioware is learning during the making of DA: Inquisition. The Participants are:

General manager Aaryn Flynn, Mass Effect's executive producer Casey Hudson, and Dragon Age's executive producer Mark Darrah joined Game Informer's Joe Juba to discuss what they have in store for fans.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Tell Us Your Questions

by Couchpotato, 00:42

Game Informer wants you to ask them any questions you may have about Dragon Age: Inquisition. Bioware may answer your question in a new podcast.

As part of our ongoing coverage of Dragon Age: Inquisition, we're going to be recording a chat with one of the minds behind the game. If you have a burning question for BioWare, this is your chance to ask it.

Here's what you do: Ask your question(s) in the comments below. We're going to harvest the whole batch at the end of the day on Monday, August 26. Then, we're going to hand-pick which questions we bring up during the Q&A session. After we have everything recorded, we're going to post the discussion as a special edition podcast in a couple weeks.

"We've found that if the writers forged on ahead and created these fully-fleshed characters that by the time it got the concept artist, the concept artist might be like, ‘No, [I] don't understand, and they'll be playing catch up the whole time,'" says lead writer David Gaider.

It can get tricky when too many people are involved:

"When too many of us make too many decisions about that character that are apparent...they can tend to get kind of sandblasted down; trying to make sure the characters are given their own identity physically and story-wise is critical." Rhodes points out how in the past, the main distinguishable parts of characters were the costume design and affectations.

A little backstory on Vivenne:

This came into play with the creation of Dragon Age: Inquisition party member Vivienne. This circle mage was in line to be first enchanter in the Circle of Oralis before the mages declared their independence and broke away from the Chantry. "That is a character who has a very specific view on the role of the circles and the Chantry," Kristjanson says. "As someone who is extremely pro-circle, what is left for that person when that entire system crumbles? [She's] going to want a very particular thing from the inquisition depending on the way you're headed that may or may not match with [your] Inquisitor."

Creative director Mike Laidlaw had some interesting thoughts on the problems with narrative in an open-world game, so stay tuned to the end of the video to hear him discuss whether or not this is a stepping stone for a fully open-world Dragon Age game.

The Bioware forums dicuss the dev video diary here. New info seems to be that we can now 'look under rock, every bush' according to the art director Matthew Goldmann. Mike Laidlaw mentions that the leader of the Inquistion in this DA game will get agents - to me this sounds like Bioware's inspiration came from the Assasin's Creed games - among other games, it seems.

This time around, it's not about extreme viewpoints, though. You've seen both groups at their worst; now it's time to see the other side. [....] "And now in Dragon Age: Inquisition we want to show the player the people who feel that they're right. That they're on the side of good, not from the side of, ‘I am an extremist who has this view that might be hard to understand,' [but] more, ‘This is why my position is morally correct.'"

Decisions will be even more diffcult and harder this time around:

The questions are bound to get more complicated, and BioWare has put a lot of thought into your role as the Inquisitor. "Making the decision harder is stopping and thinking, ‘What is the right outcome? What do I want out of this problem? What do I need to have happen?'" Gaider says. "For some players that's very simple, but if you can have an argument about it, that makes it Dragon Age."

Friday - August 16, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Combat Refined @ Game Informer

While BioWare wouldn't confirm the return of the tactical view from that game, creative director Mike Laidlaw and executive produce Mark Darrah are pushing for more strategic encounters in Inqusition. We spoke with Laidlaw and Darrah about their vision for the next iteration of combat in the series, and senior gameplay designer Josh Stiksma showed off some pre-alpha footage.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Interview @ Ausgamers

AusGamers: Obviously Dragon Age 3 is announced, that’s definitely something that’s happening out at BioWare. Mass Effect wrapped up, and that was a really long undertaking. I followed that from the start, and spoke to Casey [Hudson, Mass Effect Creative Director] a bunch of times. Now there’s probably a lot of stuff going on at BioWare, but I’m keen to know if the vibe in the office is a little bit different now that this one major arc doesn’t exist anymore?

Cameron: I guess a little bit. With Mass Effect -- the core trilogy of it anyway -- ending, it’s freed up some people to think about what to do next, and that builds a certain level of excitement. And combine that with gen four, which again: what can we do with these things? There’s, I think, a sense of real exploration in what we want to try and accomplish, and that’s great; that energy level sort of ramps up again.

Having worked on consoles for so many years as well, you kind of know how far you can push it, and now it’s like it’s an unknown barrier again on the hardware. And also as I said “What does BioWare do next?”, so that’s going to be really interesting to see.

AusGamers: And finally, I’ll just wrap up with one more: having come from Visceral, and now being out at BioWare, those two companies both having a pretty good history with transmedia, and BioWare being such a story-driven developer. Do you think that there needs to be more of a push to get these grandiose worlds that developers make, into the hands of consumers in various forms, as opposed to just games?

Cameron: Yeah, I think so. Particularly something like Dragon Age. There’s a lot novels, there’s comic books, there’s all the action figures and all that sort of stuff. I think we’d like to do more of that. Mike Laidlaw, who’s the Creative Director on Dragon Age, he’s a former writer himself, so he’s heavily involved in trying to push the franchise out, beyond just the core game.

We would never want to weaken the core experience that you have within the main game, but if we can sort of extend it out a little bit, there’d be some really interesting things that you could do there. And we’ve got some ideas, which hopefully we can talk about at a later date, around the topic.

Choosing between a human, dwarf, or elf (and playing through their various origin stories) personalized each player's experience in the world of Thedas. The absence of racial choices in Dragon Age 2 was a sore point with fans. During our studio visit, BioWare was proud to announce that Dragon Age: Inquisition brings the feature back – contrary to its previous claims that players would once again be human-only.

Tuesday - August 13, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Morrigan Past and Present

Morrigan is one of the most mysterious characters to grace the Dragon Age universe. The seductive mage keeps everyone guessing about her true intentions, and knows more than she lets on. If the cheers following her appearance in Dragon Age: Inquisition’s E3 trailer are any indication, fans are glad to have her back. With so many questions lingering, including Morrigan’s whereabouts since performing the dark ritual to conceive a child, Inquisition is her chance to return to glory. Not only do we catch you on to speed on Morrigan, but we also sat down with BioWare to discuss the creation of one of the most-discussed Dragon Age characters and her role in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Dragon Age: Inquisition - A Look Inside Development

With a mountain of lore to build on and millions of fans expecting the best, the developers of Dragon Age: Inquisition have a challenge in front of them. Creative director Mike Laidlaw and executive producer Mark Darrah are passionate about the direction for the third entry and were eager to talk about what the role of the inquisitor means for players. You can learn much more about the ambitious game by reading the cover story in the latest issue of the magazine, but Bioware allowed our cameras in the studio to share the story behind the game's development.

Thursday - August 08, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Game Details

by Couchpotato, 00:13

Gaming Everything has shared some info from Game Informer's September issues's coverage of Dragon Age: Inquisition. The list is quite extensive so here is just a snip.

Story

- Game begins as Thedas is in chaos - Chantry and the mages are at war - The Seekers of the Truth and Templars are no longer tied to Chantry rule - Ferelden continues to recover from the darkspwan Blight that ended 10 years ago - Orlais is involved with a civil war - Tear in the sky links the real world to the Fade - Magic and demons come from Fade - Rip allows demons to cross freely instead of using a mage host - Demons/abominations are running free all over - With everything going on, “there is a suspicious level of chaos in anticipation of this event” - Reinstitute the Inquisition - This is an organization that doesn’t answer to any outside power - Inquisition puts aside politics and extracts answers - “…about looking into what conspiracies happen, what kind of dastardly deeds could occur, when people are weak and naturally torn apart”

Inquisitor

- Your hero acts as the head of the Inquisition - Lead the organization rather than controlling a foot soldier - You’re left as the only survivor early on, which leads to this ascension - Create and guide the Inquisitor however you please - 3 classes: warrior, rogue, and mage - At least 3 races: human, elf, dwarf - No pre-set name - Fully voiced - Can be male/female - Events take place as you perform them, not being relayed by another character - Will need to overcome resistance, but this becomes easier as the Inquisition gains more power/respect - Inquisition’s reputation/strength go up as you finish objectives, gain items, help others

Wednesday - August 07, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Early Gameplay Video and Details

The third installment of the Dragon Age franchise casts players as the head of the Inquisition, a recently resurrected organization charged with rooting out corruption and evil in the land of Thedas.

As the game begins, the Inquisition has plenty to investigate. War, scheming, and political strife have left the major power groups in the Dragon Age universe unable to operate effectively, which is a problem when a hole opens in the sky and demons begin pouring out. Players must fight back against the demonic threat while exploring a vast world and consolidating power for the growing Inquisition.

Large and varied environments, customizable armor, and the return of multiple player races are just a few of the ways BioWare is addressing feedback from previous titles in order to shape a new future for the franchise.

Sunday - August 04, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Discussing Morrigan

The Witch of the Wilds is finally coming back after the exhilarating events of Dragon Age Origins. What was a simple rumor became a true detail with the Inquisition’s trailer displayed at E3 this year. It seems that the Templar Order won’t have any rest for a while. The mage revolution is already a broad menace with the demon truces and blood magic but in Inquisition, the mage faction will receive an even greater weapon, Morrigan, a shapeshifter sorceress with knowledge of ancient spells that will most likely use her archedemon-spirited child to fight in the utmost battles to come.

The faith of Thedas will lay in players’ hands, however it seems that non-playable characters like Morrigan will have a decisive role in this perpetual conflict between mages and templars. But the real question remains. What’s Morrigan’s main purpose in the upcoming game? What will be her true mission and intentions? It seems clear to me that Morrigan will aid mages, no matter their methods.

She despises templars and everything that surrounds them; in fact, she doesn’t seem to sympathize with the civilization concept that much. She is also able to summon blood magic without having to deal with demons, dodging any forms of demon possession (an extraordinary benefit coming from her mother, Flemeth). Basically, Morrigan has every motive to fight with everything she has to make sure that no mage will ever be enslaved again.

Friday - July 26, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - New Concept Art

EA has released a new image for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Dragon Age: Inquisition,=, The Image below shows a graveyard, it looks like Ostagar(?) with that tower structure in the background or may be the tower of Isha

Saturday - July 20, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - PAX Australia Tidbits

The bioware forum has new information posted from PAX Australia 2013. Bioware was there showcasing Dragon Age:Inquisition. The story was first spotted at NeoGAF.

Bioware panel - PAX Australia

First of all, everyone from Bioware was incredibly nice and enthusiastic, and Patrick Weekes is genuinely hilarious. They couldn't say much about DAI *at all*, and so the response to almost every question was "we can't talk about that yet". Cameron had a presentation prepared but most of the session was Q&A.

I wasn't able to copy exactly what people said in many cases, so don't overanalyse the language I'm using here - I got pretty much everything related to Dragon Age down on paper, but it's not exactly using the words that the Bioware staff used.

- The E3 trailer was made by approximately 30 people and took 5-6 weeks - they deliberately included certain scenes and characters because they wanted to get a few messages across to the fans.

- The DAI artwork of the Inquisitor reaching for a helmet (and wearing rings) is more about a representation of the player being immersed into the game, and that it's *our* story. This was a theme that they constantly repeated, they want DA Inquisition to feel like "our" story. Cameron said people had wondered a lot about who the helmet figure was, and what the rings were for - he never really explained either of them, though.

- They want to emphasise "an epic story and a world in chaos". A bigger, broader story like Origins. Cameron pointed to a few of the new creatures in the trailer: one is a new type of demon, the crystal/rock monster thing has a giant club to use in combat, and the thin, skeletal one is called a "Nightmare". At the same time as a demon invasion is happening from a breach in the Veil, chaos also engulfs human nations and factions as they go to war with each other. The story is a long one (that sounds obvious but it was part of a larger sentence and I forget the second part).

- Another section of the E3 trailer was intended to represent "decisions that matter". The scene with Varric and the dead bodies actually occurs in the game - a village is destroyed and its people wiped out because of actions that the Inquisitor did, or failed to do. They want consequences for our choices to ripple through the game.

- Old news, but the player leads the Inquisition - and the Inquisition is not part of the Chantry.

- The map scene with Cassandra from the trailer was the Inquisition plotting and planning an attack, with various people gathered around the table, plotting.

Wednesday - July 17, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Which Characters Will Come Back?

by Couchpotato, 02:10

UniGamesity has written up a new article discussing the possible companions that might be back from the previous games.

BioWare has recently assured that Dragon Age Inquisition is still under development and it will only be released in 2014. Last month, during the annual E3, the company presented a small trailer that revealed part of the incoming plot, which will feature Morrigan, one of the main characters in Dragon Age Origins.

The eternal battle between mages and templars will be the main theme of this upcoming game; however uncertainty is basically what defines the current knowledge about Dragon Age Inquisition. Who will be the main character, the Inquisitor perhaps? And which characters will be the Inquisitor’s companions? Everything remains a secret, for now, but it seems that all this secrecy is about to break down soon enough.

BioWare started a twitter post a few days ago inquiring players about which characters they would like to see again. Maybe the story is not completely defined yet but there are certainly a few characters that will most likely return and some that have a great probability to be seen once again. This prediction can be easily supported by two main reasons: continuity, a character that was present in the last two games has a nearly granted spot in the third game; extreme relevance regarding the upcoming plot, characters that hold precious information about Inquisition’s storyline will probably return.

In this fantasy series every character has its own unique story, traits, skills and personal involvement with the world events, however there’s simply no time or space for everyone’s return. The chosen ones shall return to the magnificent world of Thedas but first, who are they?

Wednesday - July 03, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ Gamingillustrated

by Couchpotato, 02:58

Gamingillustrated has a preview for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Most of what is said we all ready know, but it doesn't hurt to have more of them.

Dragon Age 3 was originally touted as an open-world game in the style of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. However, this is not the case. Bioware has indeed been examining Skyrim, but only in the sense of exploring how to make the game world of Dragon Age 3 bigger, more varied, and more open to exploration than what we have previously seen in the Dragon Age games. A very common criticism of the series, especially of Dragon Age 2, was that a lot of environments were repeated.

With Dragon Age 3, Bioware hopes to eliminate that. The world of the game is supposed to be huge. One map is reported to be four times that of the map of Ferelden in the original game. Although gamers have yet to see it, one can only hope that players will be allowed to see much mentioned places like Tevinter and Orlais.

From the looks of things, Bioware is making Dragon Age 3 one big game. So it only makes sense that a game this big comes with a big plotline. The stakes are high in the world of Thedas. As a result of Dragon Age 2, mages and templars are at war with each other and the resulting chaos has caused a tear in the Fade, the magical realm that is host to demons and other very bad things. It is up to the player to calm things down.

As Bioware has put it, the main plot will be “saving the world from itself”. The player is supposed to take the role of a of an inquisitor, leading a politico-religious inquisition to restore order to the world. Hence the game’s subtitle, “Inquisition”. By the looks of it, things are going to be very serious and consequential in Dragon Age 3.

Friday - June 21, 2013

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Preview @ Zero1Gaming

While the E3 trailer was bereft of gameplay footage, some details have begun to emerge about Bioware’s plans for the combat aspects of Inquisition. The gameplay styles of the preceding two games were somewhat disparate, with this very writer describing the divide in his articles on Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II.

To address this divide of opinion and to apparently counter some of the negative reaction to the second game’s combat mechanics, Bioware have indicated that the combat will differ somewhat from its predecessors and focus more on a player’s ability to prepare, position and form a cohesive team with his or her party members. This would suggest an attempt to find a middle ground between the micromanaging of the first game and the more frenetic hack-and-slash antics of the second.

While we still have a huge amount to learn about Dragon Age: Inquisition, what we have learned so far is a tantalising glimpse into what promises to be a world of action, adventure and not a little fun; certainly enough to make us all inquisitive about what’s to come.

Wednesday - June 19, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - Interview @ CVG

by Couchpotato, 00:42

CVG has posted a new interview with BioWare's General Manager Aaryn Flynn about Dragon Age: Inquisition.

How ambitious are you being with the open-world design?

Oh pretty ambitious! That comes down to some of the feedback from Dragon Age II and wanting to give people a lot more exploration. That's one of the reasons why we chose Frostbite as an engine, because we went through a big review of that.

We knew that our own engine Eclipse that did Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II was getting pretty long in the tooth. Continuing to develop on that engine would've taken a lot of investment and time. But when we lined up a lot of the opportunities for engines, one of the things that we loved about Frostbite was that it did terrain streaming and big open environments quite well.

So we thought that if we could take that and then layer on beautiful open-world systems and quests, that would be a pretty killer combination. That was a big priority for us.

The first and second Dragon Age titles are quite different games. How are you going to balance Inquisition in terms of incorporating various elements from those games?

The idea for 3 is obviously that the medium has moved ahead again. So we have to take advantage of that and figure out first and foremost where the medium is going. Then from there based on where we see it going, which is to bigger, open areas and more things to do, we then have to decide what from Origins and Dragon Age II we're going to bring in to that.

Each game has things that we like. For example, Origins has a great, tactical combat feel. I personally like that Dragon Age II has a faster, more action feel to it. So we want to blend those and bring them in to Dragon Age: Inquisition and then have it play out in larger, open spaces.

Will player choices from the previous two games factor in the Inquisition story?

Certainly we want to respect the investment that people have made in the first to games. We don't have a specific comment yet on how we're going to do that, but it's become a really big 'BioWare-ism' to do that so want to keep it going. We just don't know how we're going to do it yet so we can't comment.

Thursday - June 13, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - The Next Generation

Dragon Age II distanced itself from the tactical combat of Origins, but Inquisition aims to marry the responsive action with methodical thinking. “It’s a synthesis of the two games,” Flynn said. The PC and console versions are expected to be “comparable” in terms of combat feel and presentation.

The philosophy of Dragon Age Inquisition “starts with getting back to exploration, something that Origins had some of, but we really want to do a lot more of,” Flynn told IGN. Within that world, BioWare wants you to both engage in the environment around you while still having a sense of “narrative urgency” as the world of Thedas falls to pieces around you. Flynn wouldn’t dive deep on the extent to which players will explore Thedas while bad things happen -- will we leave Ferelden? Will we finally see Orlais? -- BioWare wants them “to see a lot of Thedas...and go to new places.”

As the Chantry’s oppression of the mages comes to a head in the opening of Inquisition, a Fade tear splits the sky, leading dragons and other monsters into the fray, “and that kicks off the events." Following that, nations plunge into war, and “the decision is made to bring back an inquisition to find out what’s going on and stop this,” Flynn explains.

As the leader of an Inquisition, you have an uncomfortable moral choice to make. Do you side with the mages, (heretical victims) or the Chantry (oppressive religious zealots fighting for the god Andraste)?

Monday - June 10, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - E3 2013 Trailer and 2014 Release

by Couchpotato, 22:46

It's time for another E3 RPG trailerthis time for Dragon Age: Inquisition. The game will be using the Frostbite Engine 3 and will be an open world RPG with player choice. The new release date is set to Fall 2014 instead of this year also.

Friday - May 17, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - Take It and Leave It

by Couchpotato, 00:10

Video Game Writers has a new opinion piece on Dragon Age 3. The writer explains in his view what Bioware should keep, and take out of the next installment.

The Dragon Age series has had two wildly different entries to date. They both have their strengths and weaknesses (I’m looking at you, Dragon Age II), but they’re still both enjoyable RPGs. Whether or not you hate being Hawke or you’re still pining after Alistair, there’s something in these games for everyone. With the third entry, Dragon Age III: Inquisition, on the horizon, it’s time to take a take a look at some of the things that BioWare should carry over, as well as those that should probably be left in the past.

Dragon Age III hasn’t received a release date yet, but we’ll likely see it early into the lives of the new consoles coming out this holiday season. BioWare is the Pixar of RPGs, and they need to recover from their Cars 2. Fingers crossed that Dragon Age III delivers when it finally hits.

Wednesday - May 08, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - Details Coming at E3 2013

by Couchpotato, 01:06

BioWare has plans to reveal more information about Dragon Age III: Inquisition at the upcoming E3 2013. Think of this as the usual announcement of an announcement nonsense that seems to be all the rage lately.

Mike Laidlaw states via Twitter that, "I was unclear! Yes, there will be some DAIII at E3. Not just "stuff." DAIII stuff."

Friday - February 08, 2013

Dragon Age 3 - What we want to see @ PC Gamer

Story And Game Integration. It also needs to actually play by its own rules. To pick one element, the Circle of Mages is an interesting idea in lore-terms, but one that the game routinely breaks over its knee by filling the world with blood mages on the grounds that mages are fun to fight, by having guards completely ignore you wandering around in a mage’s robe and holding a mage’s staff and having fireball battles in the streets of Kirkwall, and by the game simply not having the guts to instil spellcasting with the risk it’s supposed to have. Mages can be taken over by demons from the Fade at any point? Yeah, right. Not if they’re the player character of a 20+ hour RPG, they can’t.

This kind of thing simply breaks the fiction, and even if you can find some “But Elves Are Nymphomaniac Nudists In The Lore!” type justification, makes the world far less interesting than if Bioware had actually changed things. Some things can obviously be handwaved. Making the entire plot of Dragon Age 2 unsupported by Dragon Age 2 can’t. Dragon Age 3 needs to be built around the rules as established so far, rather than taking the easy road and hoping we just don’t notice.

Dragon Age 3 - Artist Praises Frostbite 2

The Dragon Age artists were always slightly disappointed at how their work was visualised in the final product with Eclipse, but with Frostbite, they've just done some amazing stuff," he went on.

"There was a pre-production period where almost on a weekly basis I'd be sitting in the environment reviews and being blown away by what was coming out - it looks stunningly beautiful. So I think when we do start releasing screenshots, people won't be disappointed."

In Thompson's view, companion series Mass Effect is "the perfect example of a game that transcends its technology", using skilled visual design to hide or make a point of the limitations of the engine. By the sounds of it, Dragon Age 3's art direction is similarly ambitious.

"Can you make fantasy beautiful in a different way? We think we have something special for Dragon Age 3: Inquisition," he mused, adding that the game will shun the "subdued colour palette and harsh brown feel" typical of much current fantasy media.

Tuesday - October 23, 2012

Dragon Age 3 - Wishlist @ Game Informer

I’m not going to use this as an opportunity to rake Alistair or Anders across the coals, but the archetypes in your party could use a serious revamping. The Sensitive Male, the Tough Vamp, the Wisecracking Construct, the Alcoholic Dwarf – these can all be put to bed. Some concepts from the series have definitely stood out (I loved Justice), but fewer easy choices would help build a more sympathetic cast.

Dragon Age 3 - First Details @ Kotaku

by Myrthos, 12:25

Kotaku reports some of the first details that emerged about Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. These details include full customization of the playing and non-playing characters and owning a castle. If that doesn't work out, they can always use it for a next Sims add-on I suppose.

Creative director Mike Laidlaw said that "customization is going to be bigger than Dragon Age Origins," to include "follower customization," according to producer Cameron Lee's live-tweeting of the event.

Asked how much control players would have over their character, lead writer David Gaider said "You will be human," before adding that "backgrounds will be in Dragon Age 3 even though you will be human, it's not playable but it does significant impact on the story." That again was according to Lee's twitter feed.